because boyfriend jeans

Look good on the boyfriend too. Street Walker via STNF.

the old typewriter

"I get up in the morning, that's one of the hard parts, drag myself over to the old typewriter and sit down—that ’s even harder— and then I tell the Lord, 'I ain't greedy, Lord, just give me the next 500 words.'" Harry Crews. (Car, 1st Edition)

and that's the he and the she of it

Somehow I missed Rick Moody's choices on Ubuweb last month. Worth a listen, especially William Carlos William's reading Danse Russe ("I am lonely, lonely/I was born to be lonely/I am best so!").

Dancing Legs Calipers from Erie Basin

original gesture

Lindsey Thornburg cloak via Jen at Sleep Deprivation and Stories of my Bullshit Youth.

what carrie found

Double-waisted, drop-crotch, vintage Vivienne Westwood pants.

to write

"To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write." Gertrude Stein.

Photo by Man Ray.

nope

artis3letters.

fishtail parka

Totokaelo.

where I went

LOLITA.

Photo from hello bum.

5 things

I like about Cali Dewitt: He and Jenna in their bathrobes; how they always look like they're having fun and how their friends all have the best terrible haircuts; this t-shirt; how I kinda want, but am strangely reticent, to buy the blind bargain bag.

the skins are naked

Some glasses for the ugly earring. And a quote from un fille comme moi via Google Translate, "Funny this gradual disappearance of makeup. The skins are naked, eyes less responsible..."

Photo from CaféMode.

waiting for home

Home, by Marilynne Robinson. Excerpts from an interview with The Paris Review:

On character: In the development of every character there’s a kind of emotional entanglement that occurs. The characters that interest me are the ones that seem to pose questions in my own thinking. The minute that you start thinking about someone in the whole circumstance of his life to the extent that you can, he becomes mysterious, immediately.

On teaching: I try to make writers actually see what they have written, where the strength is. Usually in fiction there’s something that leaps out—an image or a moment that is strong enough to center the story. If they can see it, they can exploit it, enhance it, and build a fiction that is subtle and new. I don’t try to teach technique, because frankly most technical problems go away when a writer realizes where the life of a story lies. I don’t see any reason in fine-tuning something that’s essentially not going anywhere anyway. What they have to do first is interact in a serious way with what they’re putting on a page. When people are fully engaged with what they’re writing, a striking change occurs, a discipline of language and imagination.

On writing essays: To change my own mind. I try to create a new vocabulary or terrain for myself, so that I open out—I always think of the Dutch claiming land from the sea—or open up something that would have been closed to me before. That’s the point and the pleasure of it. I continuously scrutinize my own thinking. I write something and think, How do I know that that’s true? If I wrote what I thought I knew from the outset, then I wouldn’t be learning anything new.

uncommon day

Photo by Gareth McConnell for Lyell

last day of summer

Porter Hovey Polaroid Project.

making pictures

Trudy White, who did the illustrations in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, runs writing and visual art workshops for children and adults.

feeding merlin

Bona Drag is celebrating it's first year. If a boutique was a cool childhood friend, it would be Bona Drag. Photo.

a gathering

Kiki Smith at Walker Art Center.

a collaboration with the world

"I trust my work. It's a collaboration with the material, and when it's viewed, it's a collaboration with the world." Kiki Smith.

a blue quality

The Chicken Mask was sorrowful, Sis. The Chicken Mask was supposed to hustle business. It was supposed to invite the customer to gorge him or herself within our establishment. It was supposed to be endearing and funny. It was supposed to be an accurate representation of the featured item on our menu. But, Sis, in a practical setting, in test markets -- like right out in front of the restaurant -- the Chicken Mask had a plaintive aspect, a blue quality...

From "The Mansion on the Hill" by Rick Moody.
Photo by Johanna Reed on Wheat Toast via Fortysixth at Grace.

was it for this

Tragic by Madelaine. Via Rebekah on Design Sponge.

denim

un fille comme moi.

couple in voodoo trance

"Do we mean love, when we say love?" Samuel Beckett.

Photo Weegee.

a dance to the music of time

"The pens are essentially props-they remind me that I’ve got to get back to writing, which means turning on the computer, and that’s a whole new world of distractions." David Coggins. Photo and post from A Continuous Lean.

what it is to be a human being

AM Homes: "...it [Wallace's death] reminds us all of how fragile we are, and how close at hand the darkness is."

what possessed me

Not sure what I did with myself before I discovered this blog.

Photo from Daily Mail via What Possessed Me.

my imaginary self

Just got dressed. La Garçonne.

intelligence is relative

Burn after Reading opened yesterday. The Coen Brothers.

I love you more

Martin Military Jacket.

1969

On Craigslist today.

let us be judged by our acts

Erie Basin.

yes, I have friends

My friend Kenny came to visit last week. Check out his documentary about Bolivian women wrestlers here.

your hand in the world

Margaret Kilgallen. Beautiful Losers at the Lumiere.

four saints in three acts

The Lee Miller exhibit at SFMOMA is only up for a few more days. Photo of Lee Miller and Picasso from Art Tattler.

my criterions

I could spend all day on the Criterion site. Here are Kate and Laura Mulleavy's Top 10 Criterion picks. And Jane Campion's. Or howabout Jonathon Lethem's?

Timeline for Lethem's Fortress of Solitude from The Paris Review.

stone animals

Tilly has divided the yard in half. Carleton is not allowed in her half, unless she gives permission.

From the bottom of of her half of the yard, where the trees run beside the driveway, Tilly can barely see the house. She's decided to name the yard Matilda's Rabbit Kingdom. Tilly loves naming things. When the new baby is born, her mother has promised that she can help pick out the real names, although there will only be two real names, a first one and a middle. Tilly doesn't understand why there can only by two. Oishi means "delicious" in Japanese. That would make a good name, either for the baby or for the yard...

From "Stone Animals" in Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link.
Photo: "Bunny" by Pamela Klaffke.

standing still

un fille comme moi.

this morning

This photo by Ed van der Elsken via Horse Hunting. All of Horse Hunting, and speaking of hunting, hunter <> gather, too. Downloading Now Voyager's Sunday Soul Party.

This excerpt on the creative personality by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly found on the new shelton wet/dry. Stuff like "Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time. How smart they actually are is open to question."

And invoicing for my August work, in between taking breaks from my break taking.

should not have

let the artichoke flower. But it's so beautiful. And SF has been so hot this summer, that our (I say our, but my beau did all the work) tomatoes are already ripe. Ripe in August? Very rare.

Photo by Mathew Wallenstein.

rosa mosa

Via Water and Wool.

the dead

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." From The Dead, James Joyce.

Cover image from the beautiful new series from Melville House Publishing, The Art of the Novella.

the kiss

"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing." Sylvia Plath

Photo from The Selby.

clingstone

Photo by Erik Jacobs for NYT via Jonathan Bliss' beautiful Rooms.

the approach

ReadyMade: How do you approach your subjects?
Scott Schuman: Well, I usually shoot them with some kind of sedative from across the street and they fall asleep. Then I prop them up and make their eyes open. It's like they're awake.

From August/Sept 2008 ReadyMade. Photo: The Sartorialist.

balance and stealth

Renee, NY Mag.

amagoya

From the ugly earring.

dank en

Loving this blog right now.

my perfect day

Looks a little like this. "Oranien Sunday" from Berlin guide.

bernalization

I used to think that the moment for Bernal Heights was when the Karate school became a Yoga studio, although it certainly happened before that. But last month, when Cortland Studios, the world's smallest film studio; where dozens of terrible independent films were made, and at least one good one, where aspiring grips sewed their first sandbag and carried their first c-stand, became an eco-boutique carrying bamboo lingerie, I thought—perhaps the bernalization is complete.

climbing vines

Porter Hovey Polaroid Project. Beautiful.