Hosive

i recently changed my hair style and i was worried that my hair looked like this guy’s!:

from the chicagoist:

Inspired by a commenter on Fark who called our soon-to-be-former Gov. Blagojevich a “living Lego man,” (as well as our previous South Park-itizing of the Gov.) we decided to do a side-by-side comparison and by god, the resemblance is uncanny:

In fact, Lego has announced a new play set, available just in time for Christmas:

Legoman image by dunechaser

By Prescott Carlson

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even more to worry about! i knew that he was crazy and delusional!

and from knx1070.com

Blagojevich’s Hair: Sign of Mental Illness?

( courtesy of suntimes.com/wonkette.com ) – Gov. Blagojevich’s glossy locks — perfectly sculpted in rain or snow — may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist.

“It’s all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw,” said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than two decades.

Several psychologists interviewed one day after the governor’s arrest agreed that he might be suffering from an affliction known as narcissistic personality disorder.

“This grandiose sense of self . . . doesn’t carry the implication that [Blagojevich] is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance,” Ambers said.

Those who bandied the term “delusions of grandeur” when talking about Blagojevich have missed the mark, Ambers said.

“I have a patient who is firmly convinced the FBI, the CIA and [the Department of] Homeland Security are following her . . . as she drives on the expressway,” Ambers said. “It’s all delusional.”

Perhaps Blagojevich suffers from the opposite problem?

“I think he felt a certain kind of immunity,” Ambers said. “It’s part of the grandiosity — ‘They are not going to be able to punish me because I’m above the law, I’m smarter, I will outfox them.’ ”

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but luckily….my hair “parts” the other way…and i don’t really have a part! phew! i don’t want lego hair or the issues associated with it!

the past few weeks, i’ve called my friend leo, leonardo and leopold and for christmas, noel.

so i asked our friend leo chen one day, if his name is short for anything or is it just leo? he said….just leo. it got me thinking where that name came from. then we just started making up origins of the name. and started calling him permutations of leo.

so for the next year, i’ll present one a week until we’ve exhausted the possibilities. i currently do not have 52 versions but only enough to get started. you can help if you’d like.

this week…..i will call my friend leo, leotard…as suggested by justin.

thanks so much for your suggestions so far! we had some of them on the list already but others we did not and they have been added! let me know if i don’t give you your props!

Posted under leo-graphy

when people come into the city, we are always surprised by where they want to visit or to go eat. they are equally surprised that we do not frequent those places or want to go eat there. no. i do not want to eat at ruby tuesdays , bennigans or tgifridays in times square. then they ask where we go……so here are the places we like…not the best or the cheapest or whatever category….just where we go and go on a regular basis…

over the past few weeks, i’ve covered some spots where i get good southern eats and bbq. yes, we can! get authentic stuff here in the northeast!

this place is currently my favorite in the city.

what makes hill country unique in manhattan is that you order by the slice…or the rib…or the lb. no pre-fixed meals of settings. so you can order one slice of brisket or 10 slices….a rack of ribs or one rib….one sausage or a dozen sausages….but be careful, the prices are deceptive because its listed by the pound…and a little here and a little there can ring up to $40 for lunch.

you are given a ticket and as you order, stickers and marking are added….at the end of the meal, you go to the register by the exit and they cash you out.

i expect to pay at least $20 per person per meal here. and when we indulge, it rockets up to the $30-$40 range. this is not cheap.

but it is some of the tastiest meat in the city….i would go with moist(fatty)brisket and pork ribs. the sausages are ok. the beef rib, also seen here is good but i just like pork more. the prime rib is tasty too but for the price, i would go with brisket. i also usually get sweet tea(no refills)and a few sides. go for the more unique sides. the standards are just that.

the meat needs no sauce. in fact, the sauce is labeled ‘only if you need to’. the meats are smoky, seasoned and marbled….just the way it should be. i’ve been to dallas and austin a few times and the bbq tastes just like this! except in texas, it’s much much more affordable.  when i eat here, i just tell myself i saved myself a plane ticket!

as i enjoyed a slow, lazy long weekend during christmas, others in palestine/israel were enduring a different kind of long weekend. having spent a summer in israel and palestine, the news stories from the region are never just (disposable)news.

both sides will blame and accuse…in this case, the israelis are bombing gaza in response to rockets…the palestinians are promising more violence…..the details matters little to me…i subscribe to the theology of “their lives were bigger than any big idea”. so i mourn. i pray. i pause. on the christian sabbath after one of the main christian holy-days, i pray that people will turn from their violence…learn to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God.

our true violent selves have risen above the surface….

unfortunately, more to come….

Posted under a different world, politics, prophet

this is a modern fairy tale about a man who is aging backwards physically while his mind ages and matures forward and we follow this life from 1918 all the way to 2005 right around the time of hurricane katrina. benjamin’s life weaves in and around real historical events ala forrest gump….not a surprise as the two movies have the same writer!

the movie is about fate and destiny as there are some things you can’t control….and at the same time, its about the power of choice and how life can be rebooted time and time again; the theme of its never too late to do something else/new.  i liked how it presented both these themes and showed how they can be both true and work together. we as humans experience both of these realities flowing in our lives…though we usually lean toward one or the other as a dominant vector.

it was a beautiful journey…and i am partial to epics that go through many time periods…but ultimately a little disappointing. whether you like it may hinge on the big decision that benjamin button makes toward the third act of the film….i disagreed with his choice with a frown. if you agreed with him, you may like the film more.

the film has an everything must end(read: die)theme…and does not give much hope beyond that. i agree with roger ebert that charlie kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York does a better job covering the same territory.

i would watch the movie again but doubt that i would buy it. some of the visuals were better on the big screen but i don’t think its necessarily a must watch at the theatre.  the special effects especially brad pitt unaging are great and all the performaces are first rate. a good movie but not quite magical…but almost.

i have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that we are all collectors. its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…what’s your poison of choice? my father in law collects expensive liquors and figurines. i have a friend who collects lighthouses. my mom loves little trinkets and toys. my dad collects pieces of wood. no joke.

i collect all kind of things…too many things…

theresa collects a series of dolls called uglydolls….they are only mildly ugly and mostly cute. though some of them have facial hair. the irony is that while we have over a dozen of these dolls, we have not actually purchased many of them ourselves. most of them are generous gifts from friends! this is what happens when you collect stuff…people wind up helping you out. in this case….helping us out a lot. our collection has grown without buying one for years at a time.

since we started “collecting”, the dolls have taken off and are an industry. part of the scene are these uglycons/uglyconventions around the world including sf, la, tokyo and now nyc. art, chance to meet the creators to get autographs and sketches, exclusive figures and limited edition merchandise have drawn crowds at each of the cons.

the nyc con was held at the tiny giant robot storefront in the east village….here’s what is was like that day……

hanging at the top were hand made exclusive, one of a kind figures going for hundreds. there were also one of kind art pieces also for hundreds. which left us pretty much the option of buying more affordable(and reasonable) prints and limited edition dolls(as seen in the lower corner…these are variant figures in different colors and accessories like them wizard and sailor hats)….note these pictures include foreshadowing.

the con was packed…wall to wall on the inside of the store…….

and on the outside. a raffle was held to determine the order that we would enter to have a chance to buy the goodies. there was no guarantee that we would get any exclusives! or that the exclusive(s) that we want would still be available once we got to go in. it turns out that people would wait for hours…hours! as they waited for their raffle ticket to be called.

as reported elsewhere, the crowd was so big that it blocked traffic to the anger of the local residents. one unfriendly started swearing at the crowd that was comprised of mostly kids! the adults yelled him inside! but later, during the costume contest, he pour cold water on the kids from his window. it was already cold enough….and the kids were drenched. wow. ugly.

while outside, theresa and i debated what we would get. though she was in love with the plaid exclusives, they  were not figures we liked and the price was hard to justify. so we settled on perhaps a print and a few limited edition variant figures.

we were about the eighth raffle ticket to be called. i was so excited that i cried out nerdily: “we won”…we got in relatively early….15-20 minutes in…as opposed to the aforementioned hours! some of theresa’s bridemaid’s relatives told us that they waited at least an hour and a half!

here’s theresa’s prize….sailor ice bat. it is a 1 of 25 in the whole world plush! theresa also picked out a print that will be on display until early january.

and i got this…weird…um…christmas poe? on that note, merry christmas!!!!

i’ve been posting a good amount of fake christmas. today…real christmas.

the irony is that because we’ve become an overstimulated society with visuals via television, movies, the internet and even at concerts…that what catches our eye, what stands out as unusual and “different” are no visuals…like old school radio broadcasts: just voice and your imagination. there’s almost an otherworldly feel to them. its like looking at polaroids after overdosing on digital photography.

that’s the inspiration for this series of advent podcasts my friend leo put together for vision church this season. hoping this respite from the noise of fake christmas will connect you with the living god. they are all about three to four minutes in length. merry christmas!:

episode one: simeon

episode two: mary

episode 3: herod

episode 4: census

episode 5: shepherd

part of our christmas traditions involves collecting an ornament series that began the year we got married. these ornaments, christmas windows are sold through the hallmark keepsake ornament club and with each passing year, we get another in the series: this is our 5th year of marriage but our 6th christmas together(we got married 07/26/03).

with this being a milestone year, i wanted to celebrate and mark our 5th year with something special.

almost on cue, hallmark releases a special ornament inspired by the christmas windows series called the little window shoppers. perfect as a christmas surprise for theresa.

however, this was ultra limited and was only sold in 20 store locations around the country in the fall….none near me or the nyc area but in places like gresham, oregon and delray, flordia and murray, utah and shelby township, michigan. you get the idea.

so after google mapping a few locations, i determined that my best chances were either in tucson, arizona or alpharetta, georgia where i know some college students. i sent eden chen and carolyn tong to fetch it for me near their atlanta campuses. it is total culture shock for them as they were two young asians in a sea of mostly older white women waiting in line for this prize. but mission accomplished for fake christmas but real anniversary!

much love to eden who refused to take any of my money when he delivered it. thank you for your generosity.

i also got this special ornament to mark our pregnancy. i didn’t want to get a baby’s first christmas ornament because….there’s no baby..yet!(that’s next year)….but instead wanted to get something to remember how the magical fall turned into the magical winter and to celebrate our lives together so far. this looked right.

this ornament is also a limited edition one but easier to obtain since it was sold at my local hallmark though to club members only. i was late getting to the store when it was released and managed to get one of the last ones! when i arrived, there was only one left behind the counter and it had already been reserved for someone else. but the manager said i could have that one because he was sure he had another in the back. not wanting to ruin someone else’s fake christmas, i asked him if he wanted to double check in the stockroom before selling it to me. he waved me off ultra-confident in his memory. deciding not to be too chinese-y, i didn’t offer a second time and took the ornament and ran.

i also liked this ornament because it reminds me of the painting in our bedroom. that’s charlie brown incarnating me carrying the world on his shoulders and that’s snoopy embodying theresa without a care in the world. i like how the expressions are sublimely shifted on the ornament.

these paintings are big suckers…done by tom everhart, the only artist commissioned to do peanuts artwork. i got these awhile back when we were in maryland for a valentine’s day gift.

i purchased the snoopy ornament on august 25…way before we got pregnant or found out that we were pregnant….i was confident that we would be pregnant by christmas 2008….

why did i take this risk in buying the peanuts ornament in advance? did i believe in the power of christmas(fake or real)? did i believe in my baby making skills? did i believe in my own prophetic(pathetic)powers? no, no, and no. i believed in the power of u2 music making.

there was news that u2 was releasing a new album…sometime in november. and there’s something weird and magical in my life that happens when they do release studio albums….significant relationships, new changes usually follow…usually involving female folk(we will see in about a month if the tradition holds true).

though, ultimately the album was pushed back until march 3, 2009…it is still before our due date in june. and getting the charlie brown and snoopy christmas hug was the right call.

merry christmas eve!

Posted under christmas ornaments, ornaments

the past few weeks, i’ve called my friend leo, leonardo and leopold

so i asked our friend leo chen one day, if his name is short for anything or is it just leo? he said….just leo. it got me thinking where that name came from. then we just started making up origins of the name. and started calling him permutations of leo.

so for the next year, i’ll present one a week until we’ve exhausted the possibilities. i currently do not have 52 versions but only enough to get started. you can help if you’d like.

this week…because its christmas week, i will call my friend leo, noel.

thanks so much for your suggestions so far! we had some of them on the list already but others we did not and they have been added! some of them should see print with credits to you soon! let me know if i don’t give you your props!

Posted under leo-graphy

when people come into the city, we are always surprised by where they want to visit or to go eat. they are equally surprised that we do not frequent those places or want to go eat there. no. i do not want to eat at ruby tuesdays , bennigans or tgifridays in times square. then they ask where we go……so here are the places we like…not the best or the cheapest or whatever category….just where we go and go on a regular basis…

over the past few weeks, i’ve  covered some spots where i get good southern eats and bbq. yes, we can! get authentic stuff here in the northeast!

here’s a funny way i “get” bbq once a year…its delivered to me at the nyc big apple bbq fest usually put on by snapple and a bunch of other sponsors. for the delight of nyc residents, they fly in pitmasters from all around the country(world would be disingenuous…but i’ll take around the country). there are also local pitmasters from the growing nyc scene…but what’s the point???? i can get that stuff anytime….

i go for the stuff from out of town…and this time, i’ve got my sights set on whole hog bbq from the pit, run by pitmaster ed mitchell from raleigh, north carolina.

it is simply the whole pig(minus the innards(methinks??))chopped up and obliterated into little pieces to make sandwiches. i lined up when they ran out of pig and we had to wait until the little porkers were done cooking. they did not cut any corners when it comes to barbecuing. but they do “cut” the “corners” of the pig as i watched them turn this….into…..

…this! i don’t think whole hog bbq has made it to the city yet….its just too labor intensive…but perhaps i’m wrong? anyone know where i can get something similar in the area?(pulled pork is something different)

tasty! wishing i had more! the portions here are more for sampling so that you can go from booth to booth to check the work of various chefs(and so that you spend more).

other things we try to sample are brisket, ribs, sausage and desserts from around the country. but i was away for half the fest this year and only had time to snag this sandwich. i also missed getting my usual from salt lick in austin. will have to wait half a year until the next fest!