july

I found this photo on a tumblr who did not source the original (argh!). I e-mailed the tumblr account to see if the poster could find the link, but he said he looked all over and he cannot. So, if anybody knows where this photo was taken, which magical river, please let me know and then we will move there together and sit in the water and be happy forever.

it won't make sense

growth

Jungleland by Nathaniel Rich

cardboard

My brother and I made so many cardboard forts. So many. We also used it to slide down the stairs. This kid is awesome.

gauguin colors on a tuberose sunday

Paul Gauguin knew his palette and his voluptuous muse under tahitian skies, but more than those things, he can put down lines. Clean, sweeping, easy marks and it made me want to draw. Just pencil on paper simple marks, cartoons. So pretty. Seeing them up close I could just see them being drawn again and again in real time and it all felt so contemporary. The show at SAM was nicely put together, a really good story and you feel pretty sure of your Gauguin until one of the last paintings in the group, cat and vase and you think there it is, his humor and then you wonder if there was humor in the first bit and you were overestimating his seriousness about escaping and perhaps all he wanted was young blood and rum. His love for himself was summed up in this quote: "Be in love and be in happiness. Be Mysterious." Seriously beautiful, and still vibrant. Pearly pinks and crystal clear turquoise and purple dreams. His prints and the rest of the Tahitian work was also really stunning. The best thing in the show is Gauguin's old paint box.

brain juice love

The Brain on Love - Diane Ackerman. I say this isn't new, but a nice reminder of why its normal to seek companionship. Why, when you are single, you seem to search out being un-single. This is soft science, but still nice.

I wonder why

happy new year!

party like a sailor! xo

pop princess

sleigh bells

I'm sort of a sucker for this lady.

reading lust

I think these fools are all great writers. Great because they can spin stories like gold, but also great because they write with such consistency, that even if its made up it rings true like something we've heard before and know to be.

Jim Harrison, The Great Leader. A boyfriend in Montana introduced me and I will always be grateful. Reading Harrison is like reading a story written about yourself. That sounds a bit narcissistic, but I just mean that his characters are so totally a part of each of us.

Miranda July, Learning to Love you More. Duh.

Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian. Hitchens, a smart man, a better writer and someone who trusted himself. I didn't agree with everything he wrote, but I loved to read it and it made me think which is most important.

Sam Lipsyte, The Ask. Just got a notice from the library that this was in. Yes.

And three who I haven't read before...

Tina Fey, BossyPants. Before she turns it into a movie.

Colson Whitehead, Zone One. Blame NPR.

Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone. Blame BookClub.

I'm excited for this winter's reading list: chai, fireside, dog, book, done.

cave dwelling

The Eurycea rathbuni, or Texas blind salamander, is a rare cave-dwelling troglobite amphibian native to Texas, specifically the San Marcos Pool of the Edwards Aquifer. This creature has insane blood-red external gills for absorbing oxygen from the water. The gills look like a crown of fire against the salamander's albino white skin. I want to swim into a dark aquifer and meet him. I saw him on the 'planet earth' series. He was walking across the tv screen while I was pretending to sleep next to someone nice.

a girl in love

we've all got it

locked inside, trapped inside this body

the ballad of fuck all

Oh will you come home soon
Come home soon and save me
I'm so bored

the only line thats true

heartbreaking

a new best friend

sweet valentine

new favorite daydreamy store

love + such

heart

my reality is your fantasy

The Brittle Stars Danced. The stingray smoked a pipe.

Perfect article from the New York Times today. Especially since I just started my job at the zoo as archivist and spent the day looking up images and corresponding latin names of animals of all sorts. My favorite find today was the Kookaburra, which I haven't thought about for a while.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,

Gay your life must be!

unrelated happy

happy christmas eve, eve. bunny + bathroom.