All Hail Dior (pictures from NY Mag)

Dear America: a 5 year old dresses better than you do

Kate Moss's daughter dresses better than I do. Well, all french children dress better than I do, so I guess I shouldn't have much to say.

Critics

There are a lot of harsh critics out there. A lot. What I don't understand is how they could have so many problems with To Kill a Mockingbird and none with Atonement and other works from the last decade. I understand the role that they play, but I wish they weren't so lofty and rancorous about it. Sure, review a book, but let's remember, critics don't usually make very good writers...they come from their Harvard's and their Brown's...which you think would give them some good back stories, but they end up being just as righteous as the people they often criticize. Perhaps even more so.

GRE Problem

I find it strange that it is Education majors who consistently score the lowest on the GRE test. From my reasoning, it is Education majors who educate our children, decide how they should be educated, and probably are the same ones who make up these exams and exam questions. However, by their own assessment or by the assessment, educators are the "dumbest" out of every group. They have failed according to these exams so why are they allowed to educate other people? Why are these assessment tests the standard for our society and education when educators themselves fail on these tests?

Reminder, watch this movie

Too brazen

I feel ashamed for name dropping yesterday. I have deleted the post. I never know how to go about this blog...I am hesitant to write about my feelings or give too much information about myself, yet I want people to read it and to express myself freely. I feel that the information age has infiltrated our personal lives way too much -and we welcome it! It's like when Putin ran to the KGB. We are so intent on providing all of this information about ourselves that it kind of scares me. I think we are going to see some of the retributions later on. I don't know when and I don't know how, but I don't think it's very healthy. It encourage people to be egocentric, self congratulatory, and dependent. It also demotes personal achievement. Look what I did, look at me, look at how much better I am than you. Are we that self conscious?We are so eager to embrace mediocrity. Let us embrace our ordinary lives and celebrate them on the internet! At the same time, it is also encouraging. People are constantly traveling and on their way some where else. They are celebrating their ambitions. They are going somewhere, whether it be home or a new country or another school or a job. People are constantly moving, but are they? When they' re posting constantly on Facebook or Twitter? Are we stationary? On a larger level, Facebook has completely transcended Big Brother. People are so eager to give up information about themselves.

I am guilty of the same crime. Why should people read this blog or read this diatribe? I am just a curmudgeon who is self righteous and lofty.

At the same time, Facebook, blogs, and other social networking websites have made communication much more convenient. It's so nice to be able to talk to your friend whose halfway around the world. You can see what they are doing and what they are interested in without being there. It has also protected people from personal injury. You don't have to talk to that person you like in class. You can do it through Facebook, where you are less likely to embarrass yourself.

I realized how dependent I was on Facebook when I went back to China and realized that I couldn't contact any of my friends. A lot of families in China are just getting computers and its so interesting to see almost instantaneously how people are growing further and further apart. People used to live together and now they live further apart and can speak on the computer. Sometimes, even if they live next door they'll call or use IM instead of walking over. It's so fascinating to be able to observe this in my lifetime. I hope that in the future, people will have the same relationships that I've enjoyed, but I don't think they will.

So we'll see how this goes.

This has been a mess of a post. Sorry

Sometimes, when I read NY magazine I want to cry, like now.

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62665/

Read Reasons to Love New York in the latest issue of New York Magazine

Yay

Today is the most productive I have been in six months. I began and pretty much finished a short story in one day. It might be a little cheesy, but we'll see. I'll read over it again tomorrow.

In other news, I want this:

Peter Pilotto

Mary Katrantzou

Uhm you guys, I started a CHURCH

The JINGJING Ministries for Jail Is Not Glamorous Jesus Is Necessary Gentleman (Girls)

http://jingjingministries.org/default.aspx

Thanks Greg for sending this to me. Because everybody wants a church named after them.

reminder, go here *NY times

Frugal Fashion

Robert Wright for The New York TimesThe Brooklyn Flea.

With all the money you’ve saved so far, you can certainly afford to go shopping. Theweekend flea markets in Hell’s Kitchen (39th Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues; 212-243-5343), Chelsea (112 West 25th Street; 212-243-5343) and Brooklyn (81 Front Street; www.brooklynflea.com) are excellent places to find bargains. At the Chelsea one 10 years ago, I bought a signed, numbered silkscreen by the Kwakiutl artist Calvin Hunt, possibly the best $20 I ever spent.

For clothing, head first to the thrift-store corridor on West 17th Street —Housing Works (No. 143), Angel Street (No. 118), 17@17 (No. 17) — then downtown to the East Village and Nolita, where consignment stores like Ina (www.inanyc.com) and Tokio 7 (64 East Seventh Street; 212-353-8443) dot the fashion landscape. If you want unworn clothes, check out The Market NYC (268 Mulberry Street; www.themarketnyc.com) for garments and accessories by young designers, and for slightly more established designers, there’s Inven.tory (237 Lafayette Street; 212-226-5292), which functions as a kind of permanent sample sale.

God I want these shoes

Rodarte

picture by Tavi

Is it just me

or is fiction/nonfiction being diluted more and more by the increasing number of memoirs? Instead of writing fiction, a lot of writers have now turned towards memoirs. It's like they can't think of anything so they lean on a more accessible form. It's a lot easier to access our memory then to create something from our experiences and dreams.

There are a lot of great writers out there. There were two great writers from my creative writing class....two out of twenty people is a huge amount and there are dozens of creative writing courses! There must be a bunch of other great writers out there. I hope that my generation will be able to prove just how unworthy the last ten years of literature has been. Well, its not that I want to prove that other writers are unworthy, its just that I am really excited by the amount of talent that I have seen and hope to be a part of.

This diatribe was a result of The New York Times the 10 best books of 2009. Not that there were many memoirs on the list, but would these books be on the list from ten, twenty years ago? The biography of Raymond Carver is probably good. I don't know. Raymond Carver is awesome. If it's a lifetime of alcoholism, financial turmoil, and family discord that I have to look forward to, maybe its not so bad if I can call myself a Carver, a Hemingway, a Bradstreet, a Capote and pretty much every other writer.

Weather patterns are really scaring me

It's snowing in Southeast Texas and its 65 degrees in Connecticut. WHOA.

I miss Paris

Watch Phoenix sing on a Parisian tour bus because things like this happen all the time in Paris.

The take away shows: http://www.blogotheque.net/Phoenix,5176

I Love THE MOTH

I Love The Moth. If you have itunes, sign up for the podcast right now or watch it on youtube or visit their website themoth.org.

I just watched this youtube video and this woman is amazing. She reminds me of my friend Janice. Everyone tells these incredible stories. I wish that I could be an incredible story teller.

"I'm Every Woman...." Moth StorySLAM "Hair"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjzD15uDJYQ&NR=1

Austin

Places I plan to go when I land in Austin, Texas:

1. Salt Lick - all you can eat platter

2. Cream Vintage

3. Torchy's Tacos

4. Heritage Boot

5. Barton Springs Pool -natural spring pool 68 degrees year round

NPR Plug

I recently started listening to This American Life after a four year cessation (except for a brief stint in Paris). It feels like I am coming home. The feeling is like when a parent stays up with you when you're sick. There is something so comforting about each segment, about each story that it resonates with me long after the hour.

It's so strange to me because when I go to China or visit Texas, my former life feels like a ghost, like something I can only see and not feel or touch or taste or smell. When I go home, wherever that may be, I feel like I can only be an observer to this other life, but when I listen to This American Life, even though these stories aren't mine, I feel as if I am a part of them and vice versa. As if this life is real, even if I take a back seat. Isn't it strange that something so real feels like fiction, and something that is fiction to me feels like it is real?

I realized today that I am like an abusive boyfriend. I have a very bad and quick temper and I treat people like shit and then I realize it and try to make up for it by being really nice. By the time I am angry again, I have already forgotten the way I acted before, and it all happens again. Sometimes I wonder if I will end up in the car one day, yelling and cussing for someone to get back in the fucking car and slamming my breaks with a cigarette sticking out of my mouth, smelling like stale beer.

If you are in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or Detroit you should check out The Moth for real stories (told without notes or reference materials).