A Big Laugh

I once worked in a design studio. The studio was open plan. So, it was just one big space that several artists rented out-all doing different things. So we were all in one space, eclectic, eccentric and everyone thinking they were more high-minded than the next guy.

There was a man named Harry who worked in the space next to my space. He was one of the most esthetically driven people I have ever met, but very very impractical. He once told me to clear the desk off of all of the papers and magazines I was working on, just so it would be clean. He was a minimalist. He was a minimalist. He often had a vase of white tulips on his desk. He loved Basquiat and sushi from the Food Emporium. He stole our cokes in the fridge. He never paid the bills. He walked around with no shoes on, just socks and even if I could not see his feet, I knew he had no shoes on, because he was suspiciously quiet when he walked. He talked on a portable phone and had it on speaker, but held it up to his ear. He sometimes tucked himself away in his boxes of organized clutter and set up a chair and slept. We followed the snore and we found him. He never finished anything but he had new ideas every day. He was the editor of a quarterly magazine, but it only came out once a year. He owned two apartments next to one another in the West Village. He once told me he hated money. He had a wife named Marion, but they weren’t married.

But most of all, Harry laughed. He laughed so loud and deep that when you heard his laugh, you wished you were laughing too. His laugh started with a drawn out {Ha}, then a pause, and then more {Hahahahah’s} followed. It carried through stairwells, through walls and doors and into reluctant hearts who he owed money to. Harry died this week and the world is less one very big laugh.

remove bouche

There is a quote about women’s fashion that I cannot find, but it goes something like this. {Before you leave the house, when you are fully dressed, remove one accessory, or article of clothing}.

The idea here is to emphasize minimal elegance.

Well, I have taken this idea and applied it to emails and it seems to be serving me well.

I always write too much to the wrong people and so, right before I send the email, I remove one sentence. The one sentence that is a little too strong, a little too iffy or bold or soul bearing. There is always one.

tell me a tale of crazy

Tell me, do you think there could be a connection between being paranoid and being creative? I say this because I am certifiably occasionally both. More one than the other I would say. and I know that both require connecting ideas in long strings or networks, things that normal people may not connect, and the next thing you know you are either talking crazy or talking eureka.

and why, tell me, is it that when a man in history is a little crazy he often gets the crazy genius title. Whereas a woman who is crazy is just all Zelda Fitzgerald and should just sink away with her intense grey eyed stare and wine glass shattering incidents, and be forgotten? Tell me about crazy women who have been lauded, and not just as a romantic curiosity, tell me.

Five Second Fiction

You know how when someone uses a hypothetical person as an example of a point in conversation...when someone just invents a little fictional character to illustrate a story they are telling. {you know, the guy who...}

Well, I had a thought today about all of those five second fictions...lets get all those people together, all those jokers who never existed and who only enjoy only a second of our time. The ideas of people who have no purpose other than to briefly represent something, an act or a type of person, or a situation.

What if we let them enjoy more time in our thoughts, what else would they become, what kinds of things would they do?

float

Today my bus was traveling at the same exact speed as a bird that was flying beside it. I was sitting inside the bus and I could see the birds little puffy body in perfect focus. It was a tiny shiny black bird with some flecks of iridescence. And it looked like it was just floating there.

Lets Pretend that Life is Long

Lately, because of a certain tragic turn of events that are affecting a colleague of mine, I have been really REALLY thinking about how, as cliche as it is, human life is just so damn short and often sad.

But it leads me to the point of asking, if one were to truly embrace this idea that life is indeed an absurdly fleeting flash in the pan, and we might not be here for a lovely or upsetting tomorrow, what does one do with that realization?

Life is short so lets eat a lot of doughnuts, or sleep a little longer, or tell someone how you REALLY feel. Life is short so hug your dog, buy those shoes you love and get it with extra cheese. Life is short so do what you want in life and because there will (probably) be no one looking down on you and laughing at the general foolishness of your own life, you have to laugh at it yourself.

But, I think for me, because I dont trust myself thinking that it might be my last day on earth, which could actually be any day now, I am just going to pretend that life is long. I am going to pretend that life is long so that I wont call anyone up and tell them off, or send an email that gets me into trouble. So I wont get metaphorically, or actually, too drunk on life’s bounties...only to have the sun rise tomorrow on my big fat new headache.

25 things about me.

On facebook there is this note going around where you have to make a list of 25 things about you. They are fun lists, but I have too many random friends on facebook at this point so I decided to save this list for petri dish, so only the {in crowd} could read it.

1. I know almost every word to every Beatles song.
2. My greatest joys in life are Joe, music, cut flowers, those fage Greek yogurts and good conversation.
3. I am not really sure about anything.
4. I cant identify with confident people, but I am fascinated by them.
5. I like the idea of cooking good, healthy, fresh food, but I dont always do it.
6. I cant decide if I am vintage or modern.
7. I am looking forward to working on a dissertation-my own little project, my own little idea-and if it does not happen I will be sad.
8. I loved being a cheerleader, and I dont care what anyone says.
9. Before I was a cheerleader, when I was very young, I was so shy that I used to hide behind my mothers skirt and never say hello to anyone.
10. I am still painfully shy sometimes.
11. If I dont drink coffee in the morning I get a very bad headache and cant look people in the eye.
12. Sometimes I think life might be meaningless and I am temporarily paralyzed by that realization.
13. I like to swim but I am kind of scared of water.
14. I hate winter with all of my heart and I dont know what to do about it.
15. I love polka dots
16. I can sleep longer than most adults.
17. I never finished the thank you notes for my wedding and it will forever haunt me
18. I dont think there is such thing as “having potential”, I think you are either doing it, or you are not.
19. I was told once that I have “an artists heart”, and I think thats pretty accurate.
20. I wish I was more articulate in english.
21. I can love and hate the same thing or person.
22. I have poor reading comprehension.
23. I probably eat too much cheese.
24. I am glad I have no sisters.
25. I dont know what I would do without Joe, I would be totally adrift.