Like many, I am hooked on Shameless the phenomenal showtime series. The cast is great overall, each bringing their own lil suttin to the screen.. and we all know who the real breakout star is... that would be Jeremy Allen White who plays the every-so-sexy Lip Gallagher. He's too smart he doesn't even realize how kick-ass he is, or maybe he does.
Below is a little excerpt from an interview he did with ELLE magazine.. I thought it was fitting given my usual MO
”My biggest obstacle playing Lip is how he could be so in love with someone who gives him nothing in return. He just always turns up empty handed,” White says ruefully. “There are moments when I think it’s quite beautiful—but I usually just want to smack Lip in the face.”
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
uncontrolled
"modern climate change can be viewed as a massive uncontrolled experiment on the impact of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration on the Earth's ecosystem" - Peter del Tredici Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast
 |
| Gowanus, BK |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
my favorite radio lab...
...well i love all radiolab but i think i really enjoy the first five minutes of NPR's Radiolab season 2, episode 2 the most (i'm starting the series from the beginning - it never gets old). the episode is all about the way we speak and the music we make. the episode is beautiful. while in scandinavia i was informed that the swedish sing a bit as they speak... i guess so do english speaking americas and a couple of britons.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
everything in moderation kids
"In fact, those occasional pot smokers actually had improvements in some measurements of lung function. That may be due in part to the stretching involved in the deep tokes typical of marijuana use."
Little NPR piece on why smoking a joint ain't so bad.. compared to cigarettes
Little NPR piece on why smoking a joint ain't so bad.. compared to cigarettes
'tis life
"stormwater is not a mechanical system. it is an environmental process, joining the atmosphere, the soil, vegetation, land use, and streams, and sustaining landscapes. in every landscape the falling of rain, the shining of sun, and the blowing of wind are the beginnings of all life" - bruce k. ferguson
Thursday, January 5, 2012
election 2012 rants... starting now
alright, i cannot take it anymore.. i've tried to stay relaxed but i just can't, what the hell is the deal with the GOP?
First, you have Rick Santorum, 2nd place in Iowa? Really? He's dumber than Herman Cain.. I didn't even know he was still in the race. Out of all those GOP debates he spoke, what, for 2 minutes total, c'mon! And the guy's a jerk, his recent comments in N.H. today to college students proves it.. he tried to comparesame-sex marriage to bigamy, really, that's what you're gonna do? i'm sorry but anyone that tries to make a law against people getting married is clearly just a bad person... especially when more often than not it is republicans that treat marriage like a shame, hello Newt and Arnold... and why not throw in Trump just for the hell of it. REALLY?!
NO WHERE in our constitution does it say anything about marriage, nor should it ever... separation of church and state, you wanna be tea partiest.. c'mon, get it straight, keep your prayer at home. and i have nothing against religion, spirituality, belief, non-belief, on the fence, nope doesn't matter to me, as long as you don't bug me about it. it's none of my business what you do at home or with your free time as long as it is not hurting anyone physically or emotionally. And no one has the right to tell anyone who they can or cannot marry, especially when in more than a third of our states you can marry your cousin, yah that doesn't sound like a bad lifetime movie waiting to happen or anything.
now #2, the news really needs to start paying attention to Ron Paul, he's real nice on paper, i love myself some libertarianism (hello LOCAL FIRST!!) but i'm not sure we're ready for it, i wish we were but we're not, we've got a few things to do before that... but Ron's gaining major support and it's time people started talking about what he'd be like as our president or even the GOP candidate (he'd probably be a sweet VP to Obama, just sayin', i barely see Joe B. these days!).... and finally #3, at least for today.... this lovely quote from former republican candidate John "the maverick" McCain..
"Senator John McCain, campaigning with Mr. Romney, offered an equally stinging broadside of the appointments, which were made by Mr. Obama on Wednesday. “This is a classic example of the way this president regards, and frankly abuses, the office of the presidency of the United States,” Mr. McCain said." - NY TIMES
I think it's a real shame that people running our government can't remember what happened in October 2001, i.e. when G.W. Bush invaded a nation without the approval of congress. You're gonna go there McCain? Don't forget what that war, and two others, have done to our nation.. more than half of our budget is spent on the military (something PRESIDENT OBAMA IS ABOUT TO CHANGE!)... and major funding was taken away from things such as EDUCATION and SS! you want to talk about abuse of power, then think about what happened from 2001-2008 or else stay quiet old man. Education and infrastructure should be what this country spends its money on.. and sorry Ron Paul if you even try to get rid of the department of education (fed revs. is a different story, do it!) then you better figure out how our students will pay for college because even community college costs money.. and while some people think higher education is a shame (maybe it is, i dunno, i sure love knowledge and learning from some of the most brilliant professors and classmates, but hey that's just me), education is what will change this world and for the better.
So this is the 5th of January... I can't image what is in store for the next 10 months but it should be full of laughs but we've got to take this seriously because this election will really change everything. So before you vote, don't just think of yourself, think of your friends and family, some of whom may be in love with a member of the same sex, or a woman who does not want to have a child for whatever reason (remember, that's not your business, it's not your body and do you really think it is better to force a child into a world that is unstable and to a mother who does not want to be a mother?), or is someone that wants to go and get an education and advance science using stem-cell research or whatever.. this is serious, this is our world. BE WELL and THINK!
and a lil' suttin suttin from the sports world, just for fun..
just sit back and relax... we don't pray on the sidelines
First, you have Rick Santorum, 2nd place in Iowa? Really? He's dumber than Herman Cain.. I didn't even know he was still in the race. Out of all those GOP debates he spoke, what, for 2 minutes total, c'mon! And the guy's a jerk, his recent comments in N.H. today to college students proves it.. he tried to compare
NO WHERE in our constitution does it say anything about marriage, nor should it ever... separation of church and state, you wanna be tea partiest.. c'mon, get it straight, keep your prayer at home. and i have nothing against religion, spirituality, belief, non-belief, on the fence, nope doesn't matter to me, as long as you don't bug me about it. it's none of my business what you do at home or with your free time as long as it is not hurting anyone physically or emotionally. And no one has the right to tell anyone who they can or cannot marry, especially when in more than a third of our states you can marry your cousin, yah that doesn't sound like a bad lifetime movie waiting to happen or anything.
now #2, the news really needs to start paying attention to Ron Paul, he's real nice on paper, i love myself some libertarianism (hello LOCAL FIRST!!) but i'm not sure we're ready for it, i wish we were but we're not, we've got a few things to do before that... but Ron's gaining major support and it's time people started talking about what he'd be like as our president or even the GOP candidate (he'd probably be a sweet VP to Obama, just sayin', i barely see Joe B. these days!).... and finally #3, at least for today.... this lovely quote from former republican candidate John "the maverick" McCain..
"Senator John McCain, campaigning with Mr. Romney, offered an equally stinging broadside of the appointments, which were made by Mr. Obama on Wednesday. “This is a classic example of the way this president regards, and frankly abuses, the office of the presidency of the United States,” Mr. McCain said." - NY TIMES
I think it's a real shame that people running our government can't remember what happened in October 2001, i.e. when G.W. Bush invaded a nation without the approval of congress. You're gonna go there McCain? Don't forget what that war, and two others, have done to our nation.. more than half of our budget is spent on the military (something PRESIDENT OBAMA IS ABOUT TO CHANGE!)... and major funding was taken away from things such as EDUCATION and SS! you want to talk about abuse of power, then think about what happened from 2001-2008 or else stay quiet old man. Education and infrastructure should be what this country spends its money on.. and sorry Ron Paul if you even try to get rid of the department of education (fed revs. is a different story, do it!) then you better figure out how our students will pay for college because even community college costs money.. and while some people think higher education is a shame (maybe it is, i dunno, i sure love knowledge and learning from some of the most brilliant professors and classmates, but hey that's just me), education is what will change this world and for the better.
So this is the 5th of January... I can't image what is in store for the next 10 months but it should be full of laughs but we've got to take this seriously because this election will really change everything. So before you vote, don't just think of yourself, think of your friends and family, some of whom may be in love with a member of the same sex, or a woman who does not want to have a child for whatever reason (remember, that's not your business, it's not your body and do you really think it is better to force a child into a world that is unstable and to a mother who does not want to be a mother?), or is someone that wants to go and get an education and advance science using stem-cell research or whatever.. this is serious, this is our world. BE WELL and THINK!
and a lil' suttin suttin from the sports world, just for fun..
just sit back and relax... we don't pray on the sidelines
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
god, i love sweden
Kopimism, the latest religion in Sweden... sets out to share ALL information and calls for copyright and patient reform. Knowledge is power and we're all equal.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
All the Water We Have Now is All the Water We Will Ever Have
it's been a while since i've discussed the major piece of work i am, uh, working on... mostly because it has been placed on the back burner for longer than it deserved and way longer than i would have liked. the last time i spoke of this thing, we shall call it a 'thesis', i was ready to jump off the brooklyn bridge. i just couldn't wrap my head around my topic or come up with a plausible topic for that matter. and then all of a sudden (okay more like gradually, slowly, painfully, NERVE-RACKINGLY) on a saturday afternoon after a gowanus studio working session i got to talking with another student who happens to also think the environment is the center of our world... and i started to feel better about what i was proposing.
ah, now you may be wondering "what the fuck are you proposing this time?" well, it's not much different than what i was thinking about a year ago... stormwater management, in gowanus, using natural systems. alright, that's it. i got all nervous and sidetracked because i wanted my thesis to be more badass, more feral.. i.e. "transforming streets into feral landscapes to manage stormwater" ... and i could have gotten there if i just had more time, more energy, straight up just felt more comfortable talking about something i really believed in. it also didn't help that i go to school with some really brilliant people who are working on topics that involve people and i just felt like my topic was irrelevant...
....until i thought about what i had learned for 5 years living in vermont and paying for a kickass education, i.e. the environment matters and without it none of us would be here.. so you can write and write about the human race and the possibilities within it but without clean water [and healthy, functioning eco-systems] we'd all be dead. terrifying, i know.. but it's a fact. and it's now or never that we start to value stormwater as the ultimate resource, a blessing from mother earth, that keeps us going.. it's not a waste, it's not something we must dispose of. NO! it's something we must learn to use, to benefit from, to work with.. to manage. but more importantly, we must learn to live with stormwater, with water in general.. we must understand that water will always be more powerful than we are because we are mostly water and we depend upon it for survival - and water will always come back to reclaim what once belonged to it... that includes man-made land.. man-made land that is now the gowanus neighborhood.
the gowanus has so much potential.. it's a working waterfront! coastal folk tend to forget how lucky we are to live along the coast.. we can import and export with ease.. we can flee if we must.. we are not landlocked. but back to the point... gowanus is great but it won't be for long if some serious infrastructure issues are not addressed - and i believe we can address these issues in a positive, less costly way. we do not need to disturb the earth more than we already have.. i say let's give nature back a bit of the urban pie! let's use natural processes to manage, harvest and REUSE stormwater.
All the Water We Have Now is All the Water We Will Ever Have - much like energy.. it cannot be created nor destroyed.. but it can be altered significantly but that comes with a major price tag that we simply cannot afford.. and does it really make sense to rebuild the wheel when it rains down on us nearly once a week? [you might have to re-read that to have it make normal-person sense but then hopefully you'll get what i'm saying].
what i am saying [or as always, trying to say] is my thesis is gonna be badass because i love my topic, i am an aquarius for pete's sake - HELLO WATER BEARER - i love water and i value it in a way i never thought i could and i want to stand up for the one resource we simply cannot make due without. bringing nature into urban landscapes is something modernist had been proposing for nearly 3 decades, amongst other things and of course people only listened to other other things - eww, all concrete buildings on piloti, really, that's what people chose to focus on?!
as a self-declared modernist, environmentalist, and just an over cautious planner, i am seriously excited to give so much needed time and love to my research. my thesis will not be the end of me [like i thought] but rather an extension, a new phase, of what i have always believed.. we can be better than what we are, we just have to push ourselves to achieve the what some may say is impossible and what we should really call sustainable. humans have survived with nature for thousands of years, why stop now? go with your gut, stick up for your thoughts because you're probably right.. the environment is the center of our world.
oh and this is my research site where i shall test my theory that nature is awesome: Badass Batcave
ah, now you may be wondering "what the fuck are you proposing this time?" well, it's not much different than what i was thinking about a year ago... stormwater management, in gowanus, using natural systems. alright, that's it. i got all nervous and sidetracked because i wanted my thesis to be more badass, more feral.. i.e. "transforming streets into feral landscapes to manage stormwater" ... and i could have gotten there if i just had more time, more energy, straight up just felt more comfortable talking about something i really believed in. it also didn't help that i go to school with some really brilliant people who are working on topics that involve people and i just felt like my topic was irrelevant...
....until i thought about what i had learned for 5 years living in vermont and paying for a kickass education, i.e. the environment matters and without it none of us would be here.. so you can write and write about the human race and the possibilities within it but without clean water [and healthy, functioning eco-systems] we'd all be dead. terrifying, i know.. but it's a fact. and it's now or never that we start to value stormwater as the ultimate resource, a blessing from mother earth, that keeps us going.. it's not a waste, it's not something we must dispose of. NO! it's something we must learn to use, to benefit from, to work with.. to manage. but more importantly, we must learn to live with stormwater, with water in general.. we must understand that water will always be more powerful than we are because we are mostly water and we depend upon it for survival - and water will always come back to reclaim what once belonged to it... that includes man-made land.. man-made land that is now the gowanus neighborhood.
the gowanus has so much potential.. it's a working waterfront! coastal folk tend to forget how lucky we are to live along the coast.. we can import and export with ease.. we can flee if we must.. we are not landlocked. but back to the point... gowanus is great but it won't be for long if some serious infrastructure issues are not addressed - and i believe we can address these issues in a positive, less costly way. we do not need to disturb the earth more than we already have.. i say let's give nature back a bit of the urban pie! let's use natural processes to manage, harvest and REUSE stormwater.
All the Water We Have Now is All the Water We Will Ever Have - much like energy.. it cannot be created nor destroyed.. but it can be altered significantly but that comes with a major price tag that we simply cannot afford.. and does it really make sense to rebuild the wheel when it rains down on us nearly once a week? [you might have to re-read that to have it make normal-person sense but then hopefully you'll get what i'm saying].
what i am saying [or as always, trying to say] is my thesis is gonna be badass because i love my topic, i am an aquarius for pete's sake - HELLO WATER BEARER - i love water and i value it in a way i never thought i could and i want to stand up for the one resource we simply cannot make due without. bringing nature into urban landscapes is something modernist had been proposing for nearly 3 decades, amongst other things and of course people only listened to other other things - eww, all concrete buildings on piloti, really, that's what people chose to focus on?!
as a self-declared modernist, environmentalist, and just an over cautious planner, i am seriously excited to give so much needed time and love to my research. my thesis will not be the end of me [like i thought] but rather an extension, a new phase, of what i have always believed.. we can be better than what we are, we just have to push ourselves to achieve the what some may say is impossible and what we should really call sustainable. humans have survived with nature for thousands of years, why stop now? go with your gut, stick up for your thoughts because you're probably right.. the environment is the center of our world.
oh and this is my research site where i shall test my theory that nature is awesome: Badass Batcave
 |
| me + the gowanus [thanks j.rec for the photo] |
do you get modernism?
"To be properly understood, Modernism is not just a matter of cubist space but of a whole appreciation of environmental design as a holistic approach to the matter of making spaces for people to live.... Modernism, as I define it and practice it, includes and is based on the vital archetypal needs of human being as individuals as well as social groups." Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect.
thanks 99 percent invisible for opening me up to him... and thanks wikipedia for this great quote that captures the very essence of how i feel about modernism
thanks 99 percent invisible for opening me up to him... and thanks wikipedia for this great quote that captures the very essence of how i feel about modernism
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)