it's so funny when dreams are clearly traceable back to events of the night before... my dreams are usually all over the place and uncoordinated, so when the dreams are clear reflections on things that happened or i watched right before going to bed, there's a bit of comfort and dependability to be found there..

dream fragments and their corollaries:

1. i had just become a member of a nation of islam type group... but for latinos... i was talking to my new mentor/ activity partner, who was hot... apparently i was no longer allowed to smoke in public, and we were all studying a quote from that was supposedly from a famous latino - but which in my head i identified as being from a sappy lifetime movie... all this was happening just after we did our routine calisthenics - which involved my hot partner basically flipping my body over and down back to stretch each of my vertebrae... i remember it seeming erotic, and thinking about the fact that the organization had a queer-friendly policy...

this fragment clearly came from watching an episode of weeds before falling asleep, wherein the main character of the show is now trafficking for a latino drug organization at the cali/mexico border... there's this very funny and fun line in the episode where the dea agent investigating the three sixes (the gang), talks about how the leader of the group guillermo is actually puerto rican ("how he ended up running los angeles for a mexican cartel is something of a mystery")...

2. i was falling through the sky with both my sister and her ex-gf, they were both cops (that's at least half-reality) but i wasn't... since they were cops they had this thing called puffy paste (harkening back to a real life conversation had last night with ukashin  about some magical thing called butt paste) that would expand as they dropped and allow them to glide down safely... i was just working with them on a specific operation so i had a traditional parachute... eventually we landed and it was raining so we had to go home and wait something out... we ended up at our parents' place (which was not actually anything like our parents' real place), and then a bunch of small and weird things happened (i.e. my brother getting ready for a halloween costume party; my dad eating some bourgie tuna salad package from a place akin to wholefoods and talking to him about that; some acrobatics around crackhouse looking for the files that we needed to make our case)... this is probably a combined mash up of bits of the wire (an episode of which ukashin and i watched before i went to my bedroom) and then some weeds-element (i.e the return to the unfamiliar familial home, and the changes in a father figure).

3. there was another part of a dream that made sense after last night, but in between the time that i started writing this and now it's left my head.

so i got mugged the other night... which was fine. not pleasant. but not violent or anything.

and then tonight, ukashin comes over to watch gossip girl and then we're outside having a cigarette and a block away from us we hear this howling sort of funny noise... we look over and there's a woman running after and screaming at a guy who it seemed had just stolen her purse from her... i ran inside and called the cops (got connected after like 4 mins - so glad for quick service, what if i was calling b/c someone had broken into my house? sheesh.)... anyway, i don't think they caught the guy b/c like 10 mins later we were back inside watching stuff online and the helicopters with searchlights were making the rounds...

welcome to the neighborhood.

the most exciting and glorifying thing that's probably happened to me all month is seeing Sia and her partner JD (from le tigre) today sitting 8 ft from me at Intelligentsia cafe... that's probably my ideal celeb to spot. i just love her. and her music. i wanted to go up and say hi and possibly take a pic with her and tell her how i've been to five of her shows (in la: troubador, avalon, hollywood bowl and in nyc: hiro ballroom, hammerstein ballrom) and have enjoyed them all in a way that is probably beyond mere pleasure... but i resisted. she seemed so content to just be sitting with her gf/bf and talking to the occassional friend that stopped by, that it seemed wrong to bother her.

i'm glad to have seen her also, b/c she's in between touring right now in the uk and europe... and she part-time lives in brooklyn.

ron livingston (aka berger from sex and the city, the main guy from office space) at the hollywood farmers market... i'm sure there were many more celebs to be seen there, but i mostly kept my head down if i wasn't inspecting produce to not stress out about the amount of people there... the only reason i saw ron is because we literally almost walked into each other.

went to a lovely dinner last night at little dom's with lunchmaker, icedsoylatte, and iheartmpk... food was yummy - too overpriced for my wallet and sensibility, but good nonetheless...

we walked into the restaurant and were seated not in the main room but a side room that's fairly large and is probably actually where they sit most of their customers (if not outside at the sidewalk tables).  they sat us at a four top when i immediately noticed heather graham (austin powers, boogie nights) sitting at the table next to ours (with some guy... less that 3 feet away from us)... that was good enough of a celebrity sighting for me and i took in the moment to enjoy... but then, as we were sitting and chatting and perusing our menus they sat another party of about maybe 3 or 4 people next to us on our other side in a booth table... not really noticeable at all, no one of mention... 5-10 minutes pass though and a couple walks in with a baby and joins the booth party. immediately i notice this incredibly handsome guy that just sat down as gabriel macht (because i said so, the recruit, and he'll soon play the title role in frank miller's The Spirit -- for you sex and the city fans he played that friend of carrie's who only has sex with models, and films them without their knowing)... wow. this is getting good.

so we've placed our food order i think and are chilling, laughing, lamenting ISL leaving, when they sit down directly opposite my view at the final table in our little cluster, none other than mandy moore (saved, because i said so, a walk to remember, etc)... OMG i'm freaking out... the celebrity sandwich was enough to send me a twitter, but now this just seems too good to be true... and as soon as she sat down and i recognized her (mandy and heather look MUCH different without the hollywood lights - and makeup) in my head i was like "oh my god, that's mandy moore. AND you two [she and gabriel] were in a movie together! where you were bf&gf." and almost immediately as that fun fact popped into my head he got up and said hi to her for a little "oh wow, hey! how are you?" reunion... it was like predicting animal behavior... and then his gf/wife/babymomma - the woman that he walked in with who had their baby - came over to say hi too, and that's when i saw her face (because she was sitting like right next to me at her table but with her back toward me, so i hadn't seen her until that moment)... and who was it? you and i both should've already known (but i forgot my celebrity couple trivia) -- it was jacinda barrett (the namesake, the last kiss, bridget jones 2, ladder 49, and most importantly real world london)...

O.M.G. i probably would've just burst into hysterical unreasonable celebrity-intoxicated crying at that moment if not for the sheer absurdity of it all...  i could hardly hold my shit... later on outside of the restaurant when we were talking about it i said that it really did feel like i was being punked or something... and that i should just stand up and be like "okay, what's going on here? is this a joke? am i being punked?" at which point though i probably would've been excused from the restaurant... i also felt like writing in to perez hilton b/c that cluster of a celebrity sighting is probably noteworthy... but i didn't. i'd rather keep them all to myself... in any case, thank you celebrity gods for making a lovely meal that much more exciting. xoxo:gossipgirl

make sure to check out Lady GaGa tonight on So You Think You Can Dance... or just do what i'm going to do, and catch the performance on youtube sometime after... you should love her. as i do. think goldfrapp, robyn, roisin murphy, or anyone who takes pop music seriously and is interested in it as an art form.  find out more about her on her website or myspace.

and then look forward to her debut album, The Fame, which is coming out August 19th. or, if you're crafty, i'm sure you can find it online already (wink, wink)...

Tagged by ukashin Sing Along / 7 Songs summer music meme.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.


1. "Paper Planes (DFA Remix)" by M.I.A.
2. "Run the Show (Johnny Vicious Radio Mix)" by Kat Deluna
3. "Love is Gone" by David Guetta ft. Chris Willis
4. "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay
5. "Raise Me Up" by Hercules & Love Affair
6. "Walls" by Beck
7. "Great DJ" by The Ting Tings

I tag: lunchmaker, nightcereus_la, icedsoylatte, mommycat78, mermeydele, speed_raesr, and my brother eo5.
</b>

Directions:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle. (I used my itunes rather than the ipod... would be interesting to compare)
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
"Half a World Away" by Esthero

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
"Codependent" by Sia (that's great! though i don't think that's true itunes gods)

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
"Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse (depressive tendencies, yes.)

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
"All for You" by Janet Jackson

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
"Game for Fools (Mara Carlyle Ukulady Mix)" by Jamie Lidell

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
"Can We (Get Kinky Tonight)" by SWV (that IS my motto...)

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
"Would You Please" by Rachael Yamagata

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
"Flipside" by Freeway

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
"Natasha" by Rufus Wainwright (opening line: "You walk alone in the valley of life in the shadow of love under the trees of happiness...")

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?
"Ready or Not featuring Notorious B.I.G. (J Period Exclusive Remix)" by Lauryn Hill

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR EX?
"That's All I Want From You" by Dinah Washington (hehehe...)

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)" by Otis Redding (that's cute - i wish there was someone that made me think of this song)

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
"Travelin' Soilder" by Dixie Chicks (wow, i swear this is on shuffle but so true... though i'd rather put "Ramblin' Woman" here by Cat Power)

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
"Back of Your Head" by Cat Power

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"The Big Fight" by Stars

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
"Better Luck Next Time" by Scissor Sisters (HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
"Anna" by Gunnar Madsen (weird. this is that sad piano music from the sex and the city episode [la douleur exquise] when big and carrie break up b/c he's going to paris... so i guess my hobby could be collecting random music with pop culture references...)

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
"If Not For You" by Bob Dylan

19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
"Pitter Patter Goes My Heart" by Broken Social Scene (i'm not as mean a bitch as i seem?)

20. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
"To Have and Not to Hold" by Madonna

Now press Next one more time and use it as your title.
"Nan You're A Window Shopper" by Lily Allen.

"Our friends are the true keepers of our selves -- archivists who hold the missing pieces of our jigsaw."

i hate that ad for match.com where they say that if you sign up for their service and don't find your match within the first 6 months, that they'll give you 6 months for free... wtf? shouldn't you just say "if you don't find your match within the first 6 months, we'll give you 6 months free to continue to waste your time and exhaust your desperation."

they refer to this area of florida that encompasses miami as the gold coast... cute. they even have regional advertisements for a seafood place on tv that advertises a west coast platter, east coast platter, and gold coast platter.  also in a weird juxtaposition - the part of new jersey that i grew up in is referred to as the gold coast (only in real estate parlance though, according to wikipedia).

i theoretically learned how to make a roman shade today...

mariah, you call that an album?  those are the tracks that don't make it onto a good album.  you leave those to digitally rot away in some forgotten beat box.  not a good time for me lately with artists having follow-up success... gnarls barkley's the odd couple is mostly just background music to me, some good tracks but no stellar singles by far... mary j's latest album is mediocrity spinning round... erykah's new album new amerykah has its moments but you have to wait around too long to care (listening to an 8 minute track for 3 mins of good music)... now mariah's e=mc2 is lackluster under the gleam of mimi... and madonna's first single off of hard cocks i mean hard candy is catchy but not good by any means... and that leaked track from beyonce is some more of the same cookie cutter r&b pop crap... should i even comment on poor jj's discipline?

"fruit of the loom" - how weird is that? how did they get away with that? didn't someone raise an eyebrow at the awkardity of that company name? it's like textile offspring.

i'm so pissed at FOX for canceling the return of jezebel james after only 3 episodes, abc execs: if you're listening, you should buy out the rights to the show, re-work it with your magic, and then put it back on air.... oh, also abc thanks for miss guided, great job... bravo, wtf happened with project runway?  nbc, poo on you for not bringing back heroes along with all the other shows that are returning from hiatus this spring... abc thanks for bringing back lost, and samantha who?, and ugly betty, etc. fox, you suck. but keep idol and house coming.

i like my dissertation. i don't like its continuous refusal to exist (outside my brain).