movin’ on up
My promotion was announced today 
I’m officially a Communications Strategist. Hooray!
of importance
“I can easily open the fridge at 10 o’clock at night and eat a piece of cheese worth $2, and I wasn’t even hungry, you know. For 2 billion people on this planet, that would be their daily budget.”
- Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of Ecological Footprint
on repeat
You know how a song can get stuck in your head all morning? I’ve had a line from the audio guide at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum stuck in my head all morning. Yes, the audio guide.
It describes how Bernard Berenson, Gardner’s art advisor, asked for Gardner’s permission to acquire Rembrandt’s self-portrait at age 23: “Yes Rembrandt? Or no Rembrandt?”
Seriously, it’s been replaying over and over in my mind. It’s not even relevant to my life, or anything I did this morning for that matter. Strange, strange, strange.
praise whole foods
Not like there’s any lacking from me, but here’s more reason to love, adore, fawn over, dream about, celebrate, extol the best place in the world. Evidently it is the leader in queue management, with the most efficient lines of NY grocery stores. Good ‘ol WF.
Interesting factoid from the article:
<<
“We have good clocks in our heads for roughly three minutes,” said Paco Underhill, founder of Envirosell, a retail consulting firm.
“Once we get beyond that, time expands wildly,” he said. “If somebody is there for 4.5 minutes and you ask them how long they waited, they will say 15 minutes.”
>>
flip flop for the summer
NYC’s mayor Michael Bloomberg just left the Republican party and is now an unaffiliated independent. This comes after a prior switch from the blue, too. Funny thing is, while my first reaction was to discount anything he might say in the future, his wishy-washyness sort of makes sense to me. And if it benefits your overall political career, why not?
There are just too many issues for consideration to stay completely true to one party. While it might make the most sense to choose the one you have the greatest alignment with, it seems like you’d be cheating your membership. Doesn’t feel right. Where do I stand? Well, just as I have vegetarian tendencies and eat meat on occasion, I have Democratic tendencies and eat Republicans on occasion… haha. um, I mean have Republican love at times. Anyway, I like Bloomberg. Banning trans fats, improving public education, pro gun control, mandating a shift of NY taxis to Priuses…all good in my book.
I’m writing this with the great fear that 1) I’m really just making dumb statements, particularly given my nonexistent political knowledge and 2) people actually read this and will see these dumb statements. But hey. If this is a phase similar to my flannel-Nirvana phase, my Animaniacs phase or my love-for-Guess-t-shirts phase, then let me experience it please.
my jaunt back east
I’m finally home after a trip home to DC and a business trip to Boston. I liked the exercise of describing my life in colors; here’s a round-about account of my past 10 days in names:
1. Ben Olsen – My hero. I think I witnessed my first hat trick as my new love Ben lead DC United to a 4-2 victory over the NY Red Bulls. Really sad SF doesn’t have a soccer team.
2. Andrew W. Mellon – Thank you for founding the National Gallery of Art. I’m particularly impressed with his selflessness: he insisted that his personal name be separate from the museum’s name so that other collectors would contribute their pieces as well, increasing the greatness of the museum.
3. Joan Miro – Amy came to visit me in Boston for the weekend and she spotted a Miro gallery on Newbury St. I was in heaven. AND…I realized that he signs his name with an exclamation point at the end! I do that too if I make cards or something, and put my name on the back. No wonder I love his stuff so much
4. Samuel Adams et al – Had a blast on Boston’s Freedom Trail. Yes, I did just say I had a blast.
5. Kimpton – I stayed at three hotels over five nights because I’m so damn picky. I was finally satisfied at Nine Zero, this really cool, modern spot with amenities like a complimentary wine hour (wines chosen by Leslie Sbracco no less!), complimentary shoe shines, impeccable customer service, a pillow service (Amy and I selected the buckwheat, spinal adjustment and water pillows one night…they ran out of the magnet ones haha) and much more. I am now Kimpton’s number one advocate.
6. Edward Hopper – The MFA currently features a Hopper exhibit that is amazing and does a great job of taking you through his career. I realized that a painting can be lonely. The audio guide called him an “inbetween artist” – love that.
7. Mr. Sunshine – Oh. My. Goodness. It was sunny. And warm. And I had flip flops on. And wore shorts. And a tank top. Oh summertime…
8. Mr. Hand-made Pasta – Ok I’m obviously stretching the names theme right now. But anyway, I’m really into pastas now! Who woulda thunk. Went to Rocca in the South End and had some delicious…spaghetti. If it’s hand-made with love, it makes a difference.
I’ll end on 8 because it’s lucky
glorious lines
I found it!!
I LOVE these lines by Claes Oldenburg (from “I am for an art“…be sure to read the entire thing. Quick backstory – he’s a contemporary sculptor with numerous giant public pieces around the U.S. His sculptures are definitely unique – they include Cupid’s Span on the Embarcadero, Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks at Yale and the Safety Pin at the DeYoung):
I am for art you can sit on. I am for art you can pick your nose with or
stub your toes on…
I am for an art that you can hammer with, stitch with, sew with, paste
with, file with.
I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a
street is…
I am for the art of mama-babble.
I am for the art of bar-babble, tooth-picking, beerdrinking, egg-salting,
in-sulting. I am for the art of falling off a barstool…
I am for U.S. Government Inspected Art, Grade A art, Regular Price
art, Yellow Ripe art, Extra Fancy art, Ready-to-eat art, Best-for-less art,
Ready-to-cook art, Fully cleaned art, Spend Less art, Eat Better art, Ham art,
pork art, chicken art, tomato art, banana art, apple art, turkey art, cake art,
cookie art.
I’m so tickled.
i’m famous!
Check this out…it’s me doing laundry haha
This is from the new Google Map service, Street View – essentially Google sent a van driving down every street in SF (and other cities like NYC) with a camera and I just happened to be in front of my apartment. Oh this really cracks me up!
