mind control in modern society...

Humans have an electric charge - this is not news. And we are affected by all kinds of things in the natural world because of it like the sun and the moon, the way other people smell and feel, plus all the chemicals and electrical junk inside our own minds.

During the cold war, the US and our friends the Soviets found out that we are also affected by external sources of electric influences. And once we realized we were all brainwashing each other, it became clear that the tiny batteries inside our skulls which are spent doing very little (besides deciding what to eat or who to fuck) can be greatly influenced by things such as light, color, shape (or form), along with more complicated influences like sonic frequency, magnetic forcefields, and other things that sound like something out of the movie Weird Science.

Having grown up in a planned community where much of the city's electrical infrastructure is underground, I became very interested once I left in what seemed to me like an elevated skeletal structure in bigger cities. When I eventually moved back to Los Angeles, where I was born and my family lives, and when I started traveling somewhat locally, I was able to observe the way the electricity and it's support structures connected cities and states to one another. Even in the small suburban city where I grew up, I was able to see, in retrospect, evidence of a society saturated in light, color and shape in it's lamp posts, traffic signals, and in the simplest forms like stop signs.

And it all made me wonder, who designed all this? Who was the architect/engineer in charge of the very first street lamp? Who decided that traffic signals would flash red green and yellow lights? If we know that certain colors have specific effects on people in fast food restaurants, and we know that flashing colored lights have either helpful influences on children with ADD (phototherapy) or negative effects on epileptics, who's to say that the flashing red light signaling an approaching train has no effect on drivers? How do we know that the red octagon with the white letters "STOP" doesn't somehow limit us - isn't part of the reason that humans use a supposed 7% of their brain, or some equally embarrassing statistic? How do we know that the white street signs in Beverly Hills vs the blue street signs in Los Angeles don't cause different emotions towards these different cities or their authorities? (Yes, I realize the obvious hole in my hypothesis being location - if I were right - people in remote locations with no electricity or semiotic influence would be geniuses, but just for the sake of argument, let's just pretend...)

Obviously, I'm just posing questions which have probably been brought up and left unanswered by countless nuts before. However, before I get to my photo-point, I just want to note that the Japanese are on to this too, despite their passive approach:
http://www.seihin-world.com/s/2005/09/29_0119.php
Also, it's not an accident that Hello Kitty has no mouth. The fact that she says nothing or has nothing to say was a very careful DESIGN decision. If Hello Kitty had even a line for a mouth, Japanese girls would grow up thinking they could do something besides just pose pretty for pictures and would run their mouths like us American women. See? Mind control through form.

Now on to my point. When CVS took over Longs Drugs, as soon as I saw this new CVS sign, all I could think about was the sign it reminded me of: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I've spent about two months wondering how similar they were since there isn't a Krispy Kreme THAT close to me and I really didn't feel like looking the logo up online or searching out Krispy Kremes in a store - I just don't care that much. I even had a dream that my brother made us all (the sister, his wife, and I) stop at the Albertson's nearby to purchase some because they used to sell them there. Today, I finally was near a Krispy Kreme and got both a doughnut and a photo. Not as close as I remember but it still makes me question a) what company made these signs? Was it the same company? Is there a trend in polygonal shaped signs these days? and b) was it simply my hungry-little-mind that made the connection or was this really a case of subliminal mind control achieved through similar shape choice by the same sign-design company? I know... it ALMOST seems like a completely useless quandary but what if I'm... right...?

(sub)urban-mythology amongst other things...

the real deal...

Animate-blanket waits for you to fall asleep to snuggle with you...

The ol' cracker factory...

I've always thought of my office in these terms because of the TV show, the Simpson's - Millhouse's dad worked at a cracker factory. Plus, this always makes me think of the episode where they go to Japan and Lisa looks out the window at the Hello Kitty factory just as a bunch of muffled cats cry out and a burst of smoke emerges from a smoke-stack - hilarious!

I like to think of this constant stream as the souls of young, bright-eyed artists as they graduate from Stanford and M.I.T. only to be consumed by the corporation for which I work and the greater good of entertainment, just like those Hello-Kitties!

I, coincidentally, work in the quirky little building in the foreground to the right.

what to do when you're blue...

Sometimes on the weekends, when I don't have any plans and I'm feeling kind of lonely, I go to the pet store to get supplies for my cat. They always have animal adoptions on the weekends and, while I know all the cute little critters with no homes should bring me down, it always cheers me up... I know, how selfish. Last weekend there was this:



I know SOMEONE must need a pile of kittens or a father-son pair of chihuahuas?

album of the week...

The History of the Real Billie Holiday, because a lady's gotta right to sing the blues...

Blapricot...

Sometimes I like to buy a whole package of a single kind of fruit at one of my (many) neighborhood Trader Joe's rather than picking out a variety of solo fruits because it's easier. This example is called a Black Apricot but I've renamed it the Blapricot because my sister had been combining words a lot recently - any that may form a slightly cohesive and, therefore, more efficient new word. Frankly, I find this practice to be hilarious.

I pondered for a moment the possibility that this was just a plum with another name, for either marketing or biological reasons, but after getting these babies out of the package, I realize they have a fuzzy apricot feel to them and none of the tartness of plums these days. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you (well, Trader Joe's does anyway...) the Blapricot...

you can take the girl out of the OC...

...but you can never take the Del Taco out of the girl.

The straight-edge vegan kids got one thing right... bean-fries. Their version was just beans on fries with guacamole but I always liked it with the works since I'm not a total wuss and only skip the chili concoction instead of also missing out on the wholesome goodness of Del Taco's dairy-related products like the sour cream that comes out of a tube. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of those guilty-pleasure/vegetarian-cult-food-faves that far surpasses In 'n' Out's "secret" grilled-cheese.

The cat's not-so-secret guilty pleasure? French fries.

take me out to the ball game(s)

I somehow managed to go, not just to my first Dodger game of the season last weekend, but to my second also. That seems like a reasonable amount of time for me to decide that the Dodgers kind of suck this year, right? What a bummer. At least there's always the view, the nacho cheese (and nacho cheese footprints!), and the beer to rely on...

scary things in the dentist's garage:

I feel very lucky to have a 2-car garage, basically to myself in which I can either park my car, shoot up-n-coming bands, or spray-paint my latest domestic creations without the annoyance of someone else's car getting in the way; or worse, a lifetime's worth of their most important junk like my neighbors who share the other 2-car garage.

I share my garage with the dentist who occupies the commercial space at the front of my building, and she uses it mainly for storage of items which (I assume) she just doesn't know how to dispose of properly. Anyway, the dentist herself seems perfectly nice (as in, she doesn't mind/know if I use her miscellaneous items for photo shoots and generally leaves me alone), but lets just say I'm glad she's not my dentist...

President's Day in Silver Lake with the sister:

I really like certain things about my sister's neighborhood that just don't exist on the west side. Despite the area's general trashiness there's so much good food, chatty people with friendly dogs, random guys just standing around on street corners for no apparent reason, and chickens foraging under cars for scraps of trash. We decided to hang out that day because we had both been sick earlier in the week (and therefore couldn't infect eachother) but also because she had recently broken her toe and had restricted her fast-paced-hipster-lifestyle for the weekend, thus making herself the perfect coffee-and-sandwich companion for her boring older sister who has also had a broken bone in the foot area for a few months now:

No image available...yet.

When I got home last night, I saw a four-legged critter disappearing into the walkway between my apartment's little courtyard and the alley on which I park. I turned my car to shine my headlamps in it's direction, since there aren't a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood, and he didn't look like LA's usual night-stalker - the possum. At first he looked like he had the body of a big, fluffy grey cat; until he raised his head just enough to show the mask he wore over his eyes: a raccoon! I haven't seen one in years and never in the city like this. By the time I parked my car and walked through the little walkway, he was invisible in the courtyard's shadows, though he apparently lingered in my mind long enough for my subconscious to create an interesting little narrative.

I dreamed last night that I was sitting on the ground in the middle of the walkway, my waist encircled by the arm of someone I haven't seen since the summer who now sat on my left, as was customary for us. On one side of the walkway in the alley, the raccoon rested on all fours, like how cats do when resting - my brother calls this the "loaf of bread" vs. the "cinnamon roll" for which cats are also known. Dozens of little birds scattered and hopped around him, their shadows were all cast long in the late afternoon sun.

On the other side of the walkway, in the courtyard which was still vividly lit (since the setting sun wasn't blocked by the apartment as it was in the alley) a coyote creeped past my former companion and I and into the contrasting, almost colorless alley where the raccoon and the birds quietly awaited dusk. At that moment, the birds took flight and the two animals battled it out - rolling into a two toned ball in slightly varying shades of grey.

And that's just how the dream ended. What do you think it means?

singles laundry, you've come a long way baby...

let's review:

1. I have a grasshopper living in my back yard who makes me feel like a very lucky girl.



2. My sister is the cool one with the exciting lifestyle, not me.





3. I have a lime tree in my back yard.



4. I am recently single for what feels like the first time ever and have been working weird, long hours. Therefore I have nothing but condiments and beverages in my fridge like an "f"ing bachelor. Also, I never realized my name is an anagram for heal.



5. This shit cracks me up.





6.



7. Roller Disco with the sister and her lovely friends, myeah.





8. Long converging strings of light lining roads at night like this (though not the best example) make me feel like I'm very far away from home.



9. Plants grow in the direction of sunlight.



10. Me and mum.



11. "Jack Jack" the 8 week old English Bulldog (not mine) who I fell madly in love with as soon as I extended my hand to greet him and he reacted by stumbling over to it just to paw and sniff at it like an awkward puppy.



12. Fred approves wholeheartedly of our new green-fuzzy-ikea-blanket.