So I went to Miami last weekend. It was quite a bit different than the last 2 times I went during art fairs. But still a nice time.

Film
Dillinger is Dead. Weird Italian film.
Pale Rider. Clint Eastwood is like a cowboy and stuff. Much like High Plains Drifter, but not as good.
Even Almighty. I only caught the last half of this one. It’s one of this “what if” movies. As in “what if the bible was real?” Answer: it’s pretty f’ing unbelievable.
Go Tigers! A documentary about a town obsessed with their high school football team in Ohio. I wished they’d focused more on the goth kids.
Our Daily Bread. I have yet to watch the end of this, but it’s one of those movies with no words, it’s only shots about food production. It’s not as gross as you’d expect, but I bet that part is all towards the end. Plus it’s in Germany and I suspect their robot operated pig slicing factory is probably a lot cleaner than the US equivalent .

Tuesday Kelly and I went to the NYPL to look at old books. They have a lot of them. It’s not too hard to find stuff, but you can see why the library is not a business. Lots of paperwork and procedure that the customer wouldn’t put up with if they had to pay at the end of the experience. “Can I take pictures of the books?” “Yes, but you have to do it over there and fill out a form.” “Ok. Can I just look through the books?” “No, you have give us a slip of paper, and we’ll retrieve the book and you can get them 3 at a time.” Fair enough. That night I met Nick J and Aug at GBM and listened to some italian klesmer and squeaky jazz while we doodled with ink. It was real “arteests in the café” style.

Watched the Kansas vs. Missouri “Border War” basketball game on Sunday.

Big snowstorm today. Glad I bought some rubber boots this year. I’ve worn them 2 times now.

Film
Valley of the Dolls. I thought this was supposed to be good. Then I check the wikipedia after and it’s famous for being bad. I wish I’d known that.
Wild Strawberries. Ingmar Bergman, a Swedish writer/director contemplates the meaning of life.
Street Fight. A documentary on the mayor’s election in Newark NJ. Dirty old incumbent vs fresh faced do-gooder!
Man on Wire. I heard this won an Oscar. Who doesn’t love excitable French people?
2 Lovers. Not so great.
Fitzcarraldo. Early Herzog movie. In German and long, but enjoyable.
Ken Park. Larry Clark and Harmony Korine (they both made the movie “kids”). I tried to block this movie out of my memory as soon as I’d finished it.

Houses

Wamego 1980–1998

Lawrence 1998–1999

Lawrence 1999–2000

Lawrence 2000–2001

Lawrence 2001–2002

Chicago 2002–2003

North Adams 2003

Brooklyn 2004

Brooklyn 2004–2005

Brooklyn 2005-2007

Brooklyn 2008–2009

Wednesday Carolyn and I went to eat in Williamsburg and then tried to go to a comedy show at Fix, but it was too crowded so we went and had fancy beers with Sarah. I liked the Scotch Ale the best.

Thursday I had a real movable feast. Spicy spaghetti at Brock and Kelly’s. Dessert for Jenny’s birthday at their place. Then a drink with Nick J. Then another drink with Mike and Nick G. A real night on the town!

Saturday was the big FEAST party. It was delicous, everyone was excited, there was music, money was gathered and awarded.

Film
When Animals Talk. Psychic parrots and rats that find explosives.
Bob Le Flambeur. Old French movie that Ocean’s 11 was probably based on or something.
Body of War. Really depressing movie about a guy who was shot and paralyzed in Iraq. Reminded me to wonder why did we go to war and is it still happening?

My new thing — specialty drawing tools.

Technology Errors
Computer at work died. Along with a file I’d been working on for 5 days. (Got a new computer and the file was fixed by Adobe)
My iPhone screen went white with vertical lines. (They replaced it with few questions asked)
My email is being falsely used as the sender for this spam. I’m getting about 500 failure to deliver / bounce emails a day, so I just deleted it.

Notable Events
Gino’s birthday
Nick J’s birthday
Nick G’s birthday
Emily’s birthday
Wine and dinner at David and Molly’s
Went to see an indy film by ‘the surfers’ at a hostel uptown.
Saw this screening thing of How’s Your News
Made some movies
Hit Book
Went to the ICP
Went to Goodbye Blue Mondays a few times

Film
La Vie en Rose. Watched an hour, and the dvd screwed up, but I think I got the gist.
Rashomon. Fell asleep watching on 2 different occasions, sent it back.
The Band’s Visit. Was only ok.
Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? I think I added this in the midst of all the election frenzy, thought to myself “oh, this is gonna suck” but I liked it.
The Model Couple. Wacky French movie, seemed like a Woody Allen rip off.
Paris, Texas. Thought I’d already seen this, but I hadn’t. Long, but I liked it.
A Man Named Pearl. About this self taught topiary gardener.
Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice. Kind of stupid.
The Young Poisioner’s Handbook. British, might have been a true story. The guy liked poisioning people.
Rentboys. About gay hustlers. Fell asleep watching this on super bowl Sunday.
Let the Right One In. Swedish vampire movie. Recommend.
Milk. Kind of like the documentary, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. But Sean Penn and the guy from Freaks and Geeks is in it.

Monday I had dinner at the Flatbush Farm. Tuesday we watched the inauguration on TV at work. I’m worried that everyone thinks Barack Obama can fix it all by his self. All these people on the news were like — “Barack’s gonna fix it!” So we’re all just sitting back and relaxing? Reminds me of the Homer Simpson’s campaign slogan — Let Someone Else Do It. Then again, what can I do? Keep working and shopping I suppose.

Friday I did some happy hour drinks with Mike, Aug and Nick. Then met C at Enids. Then woke up on Saturday and did practically nothing. Then spend the evening doing a little bit but not much. Then on Sun hung out with Aug, Willow and Kate. Then went to the big CBAG meeting.

Maybe my nostalgia is for “free time that I didn’t actually set aside as free time” i.e. being bored. As it is now, I’m like, “ok I have to get home tonight and make dinner and draw or watch a movie.” I basically want to do that more — draw and watch movies. I wouldn’t mind doing these activities with friends either.

It’s been terribly cold and that’s all any one is talking about (other than that plane crash — which was amazing. I was here at work and Josh went and turned on the tv and there was this plane floating in a river. It was a really strange thing to see). I’ve been bundling up really well. Let me give you a piece of advice — bundle up. It makes a huge difference. Parka, thermals, heavy socks, gloves, scarf.

List of Jobs (via passenger and witness accounts)
works for a pool company on Long Island
stewardess
vice president at a travel media company
magazine editors
designs computer graphics for the Bank of America
consultant for Sony Music Publishing
associate producer with 60 Minutes
private investigator
assistant principal
pilot

Still working on this book. Want to finish! Jake and Alison came to visit. They stayed at my place and did their own thing for the most part. Thurs they came in a little late so we had a dinner at NEK and got acquainted. Friday we went to dinner and some bars and a party. Saturday 165 Withers hosted the barter party. It seemed to be a success. I should have asked for “more time.” I read recently that is basically what everyone wants. Do you have free time? I don’t think I know anyone who is idle anymore. I used to be, but now I’m not. I like an unplanned day here and there. Tried to go somewhere kinda nice in the city for dinner, but man everything is too crowded. Should have gone somewhere in Brooklyn. Went to more bars that night too. Sunday I was exhausted but had to work some. Then real real nice dinner at Diner. That is a good place to eat. I keep forgetting. Tuesday night I went to see Nato launch a book, then out for drinks and no dinner. I was totally ruined on Wednesday.

Also I bought some shoes. It was a whole ordeal. Went to one store, tried on the shoe, a 10.5. Fit nicely. Debated and went to buy them and checked the other show — it was a 12. Well dang it. They were on sale and the shopkeeper didn’t really seem to offer any solutions. Attempted to buy these shoes on line. Ordered them from a store in Seattle but they emailed me back and they were out of stock. I emailed the person that makes the shoe and they referred me to 3 other stores. One of the stores said they had a pair, so I went there to buy them. Opened the box and yep there was a 10.5 and … a 12. Separated at birth shoes. I really had to do a bunch of phone calls and emails to reunite these babies. Usually I would just let something like this go, but I wanted customer service. I really wanted to spend some money and these people barely cared. I think if I ran a store or something, folks would say — now that’s some service! Anyhow I finally got the shoes. Took 3 weeks or so. Just waiting for the snow to melt and the ice to be washed away before I wear them.

Film
The Fall. Fantasy kind of stuff. Couldn’t decided if I liked it, but was charmed at points especially the very end.
A Man and a Woman. French. Described as trés cool, but cool as in mellow I think.

3 boxes of butter
6 pkgs cheddar cheese
5 pkgs various cheese
6 pkgs mozzarella
27 pkgs monterey jack cheese
12 pkgs parmesan cheese
8 pkgs various nuts
9 boxes saltines
1 box crackers
3 quarts cottage cheese
2 pkgs raisins
4 bottles olive oil
1 pkg frozen burritos
1 pkg frozen taquitos
3 jars mustard
1 pkg english muffins
6 dozen eggs
2 bottles balsamic vinegar
10 cans chickpeas
2 jars honey
1 jar salsa
12 rolls toilet paper
5 cloves garlic
11 quarts yogurt
3 jars jam
9 jars peanut butter
5 pkgs spaghetti
26 loaves bread
2 cartons milk
3 cranberry juice
1 can coffee
5 boxes tea
1 pkg rice
59.04 lb apples
20.05 lb pears
65.64 lb bananas
40 oranges
4 lb potatoes
3 lb granola
16 onions
29 tomatoes
9 red or green peppers
24 avocados
21 cucumbers
21 heads lettuce
3 bunches basil
6 bags dry beans
4 pkgs tortillas
4 bunches cilantro
4 jalapeno peppers
1 pkg ravioli
17 boxes veggie patties
2 boxes corn muffin mix
3 cans corn
1 tub hummus
2 bags carrots
1 bunch carrots
4 limes
6 lemons
2 bottles mayo
1 quart ice cream
1.64 lb grapes
1 box cheez its
1.11 lb plums
1 quart vegetable stock
3 pkg cherry tomatoes
1 bunch celery
1 pkg frozen peas
1 frozen pizza