my bike, my butt, my cap.

I picked up my formerly dilapidated (the kids call them “vintage” these days) bike from a bike shop on Melrose today. It needed some new fixins.

I took Fairfax, racing disgruntled drivers flying back to work from expensive lunches. I’ve had many of those. Not too long ago, I ordered a sub-par sandwich from [restaurant name withheld]. My equally sub-par bill read “$15.34”. I don’t remember biting into a Kobe beef burger. Oh wait–I didn’t. I had a grilled veggie sandwich smudged with a pea-sized serving of goat cheese. Right.

Kind of wishing I had a better bike, I swerved in and out of foot traffic on the sidewalk. I unintentionally bunny hopped over bumps because my bike is that old. Wearing an old unflattering T-shirt and an even older, more unflattering shiny baseball cap, I felt like such a dork on my sorry excuse for an eco-friendly ride. Did I mention it was sweltering hot?

Only half the way left, I decided to cool off with a soft chicken taco from Frank’s. Food always makes everything better. Getting off, I heard a whistle, or more like a “whoop” than anything.

“Sweet ride”, said the scruffy-bearded man in a blue-grayish-oldish cap.

I’m leaned over now, trying to lock my bike to a meter. It was as if he was commenting on my butt, a worthy cause no doubt.

“Thanks. It’s been through a lot.” Was I still talking about my bike?

The man disappeared into Franks. I leaned against the meter, catching my breath, suddenly more introspective, and loving my bike, my butt, my cap (the T-shirt still sucks). And the best part is, an hour later when I finally ate my buck-fiddy taco, it tasted better than the best Kobe beef burger I’ve ever had.

death is a vacancy.

Death never loses its efficacy, I guess unless you are devoid of emotion. It kind of grabs you from behind, always when you’re unprepared; I guess you never can be any other way.

I saw a dead crow on my way to work today. I was still revving from my cheap, early morning caffeinated thrill; and of course, hot to cold is a terrible way to transition. The bird was motionless, lying on its side. It took me about half a minute of examining to understand. It was possibly still alive, but clearly in a moribund state. It was quite possibly dead, though.

This is not the first time I’ve seen a dead animal, or seen “death” for that matter. I saw a dead raccoon once–roadkill–that had elicited a punch in the stomach, vomit-inducing feeling. Then there was my deceased grandfather, whose open casket I couldn’t process as death, but a departure to a new home. Or vacation, a long, nondescript one. Despite all the stories and two or three dead/decaying birds later, this one still hurts. But maybe I never want it to not hurt. Because that would mean that in some ways, I’m dying too.

In the minute following my sighting, a rainbow of emotions flooded me. There was genuine sadness, curiosity (is that a feeling?), concern (is someone going to clean this up?), and more sadness (what the fuck happened?). Birds are endothermic; maybe I should check if it’s still alive? Then I shuddered. My mind went to a dark place and suddenly the wounded leg, the severed beak, and the grotesque deformities sprang out to remind me that death is jarring at any and every degree.

The night of my birthday last year, I was driving up La Cienega around 1 am and saw a man who’d just been hit by a car lying dead on the street–feet bare, face forward. Seeing this bird was no different. It should be different right?

Yes, it's true.

I'm still around. Eyeprinciple will always be the mothership. But I've been busy with:

http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=blog

My column's called "straight westcoastin". Check it out!

man enough

via URB BLOG

No words are really necessary. See www.hendrixsextape.com for the back story. All I have to say is, this tape was made in the Sixties so don't be grossed out by the hairy armpits (among other things).

palm springs was hot this weekend, and I just ate too much chocolate

I took a sabbatical from blogging to work on a few personal projects. And during my break, I caught an annoying cold which has now morphed into allergies. I also just returned from Coachella weekend unscathed (not much of a feat considering I saw like 1 1/2 acts the whole weekend). But more on that later- here's a little update on my top 10 favorite things right now (mostly tangible but hey this is better than actually spending money!)

Counting down:
10.
Mateo Ilasco limited edition "Plant" journal ($32 but out of stock- SORRY)

9.
BAGGU nylon reusable bags

8.
Mastihashop, a one stop shop for eco-friendly Meditteranean-centric products, via Cool Hunting

7.
Made Her Think "Pyramid Totem" cuffs (pricey, but beautiful)

6.
I know Band of Outsiders released a Top Sider collaboration (for men) this year, but what about the ladies? Pssh. Regardless of the hype and the hipster-redundancy, I still love these classic Sperry Top Sider boating shoes. So perfect for summer- (caveat- I would be all about the Wallabees if it were winter/fall)

5.
DHC Deep Cleansing Oil. This Japan export takes off your layers of impurities and make-up. So if you're a sloppy drunk and wind up crashing after a boozy night, you might want this for the wake-up-clean-up. OR, if you're like me and are a skincare freak, this is nice.

4.
Limited Edition G-Shocks ($12), Yes I know they're all the rage right now. But look at it! Perfect!

3.
PARK restaurant (Echo Park, menu via Yelp.Com)
A little back-story about this: Friends Stacey and Carol invited me to dinner at this new East Side establishment and having heard about this restaurant through a colleague, I was more than happy to try it! The prices are more than reasonable, the venue is cozy (though they could use better ventilation) and brace yourselves: It's BYOB. Which means your 2-buck-chuck from Trader Joes or Fresh & Easy will be totally appropriate for the setting. I think I had the best veggie burger ever. I washed it down with some butterscotch pudding tart of course.

2.
Not a fan of sunglasses but I'd definitely pay the $60 for these Alexandra Cassaniti "Face it Sunglasses" courtesy of Ooga Booga. The frame changes color in the sun!

1. NEON NEON "Stainless Steel". Granted Boom Bip is a terribly nice person, but his amiable nature has no bearing on how good this cd is. It's just so upbeat and digital. Trust me- I'm no Super Furry Animals fan but Gruff Rhys did a good thing.

I Lykke

Two posts in one day.
But a worthwhile cause!

Lykke Li has been on my radar for a while now. Since I read about her on a Swedish music blog maybe 11/2 years ago, I knew that she was going to be rolling out hits in no time. I myspaced her of course and thought nothing of her until a year later, her name was mentioned all over the blogosphere. More sleuthing ensued and soon I came across this video:




This is a pretty awesome music video. It's pretty low-budget; I can only imagine how many of these back up dancers actually got paid. All you've got is an unfurnished living room and well, the sun, or as my friend Nina calls it, "nature's disco ball". But Lykke sure knows how to shoulder-dance (shout out to Vanessa). But that's what good editing is all about-

Thanks to MINIROBOT for Lykke Li photos- and for reminding me to post this mv.

pierre HOTTIE

Just a day ago, my friend Alice showed me her Pierre Hardy x Gap shoes. Of course I was very excited because I am a huge Pierre Hardy fan. Although I'm not quite financially stable enough to buy a pair of his shoes, I still enjoy browsing through the luscious photos up on the Pierre Hardy website. But with the advent of high design/mainstream-design collaborations, PH had to get involved and with none other than retail giant GAP. Here's a little side by side comparison of PH's more affordable gear with the (cough cough) not so affordable desirables-

Gap x Pierre Hardy


Ok, cool. But check this out:
Pierre Hardy SP/SU 2008




I rest my case. I've never been one to salivate over shoe porn, but I realized recently I'm quite the sucker for shoe designs that replicate art pieces.