The Next Episode
Monday, November 3 : 4:06 AM : 0 comments :
Okay, get over to jonyang.org to find out about "Exclusively Chloe," my next book, coming May 2009. Because this place is dead anyway.
Before Sunrise
Wednesday, October 22 : 11:25 PM : 0 comments :
Listening to: Madeleine Peyroux, Don't Wait Too Long.I'm taking hyperwest down, yes, again. The last time I did this it lasted like minus a week as I kept blogging anyway. But I've discovered that maintaining two public blogs is almost pointless. I was trying to keep all my non-personal stuff on jonyang.org and my life stuff here but really, what's the difference? For the most part, I just kind of felt this push to have to blog on both every few days. So instead of an urge to blog on just one blog every forty eight hours, I'd think about doing a post for each. Then I'd freeze and not blog on either. Then again I've had 375 posts on both since Jan 2007 and that comes out to about 0.60 a day. Maybe I need to cut down on the blogging to do some real writing...
Anyway, I've been toying for a bit with the idea of being able to blog about anything I want again, and going semi-private seems safer. I don't really value my privacy that much per se, but I would value other people's. Plus, even though this forum is entirely mine, I feel like I've lost my voice somewhere in here and I'd like to experiment and find other voices. It can only help.
This domain will stay up of course because everything I have is up here but I'm pretty much just going to switch everything that woulda been on here to jonyang.org and anything that's not really for total public consumption, or will bore the hell out of everyone, will go elsewhere. And I'd love to come back to hyperwest once I can figure out how to password protect, easily change designs, and have fun widgets at my disposal.
For the new blog I almost ditched Blogger for Wordpress but decided against it in the end. I'm a Blogger loyalist and it would be too big for me to change over. I really hate some of Blogger's design issues -- or my ineptitude -- and the fact that you can't password protect select posts but whatever, I'll make do. I can totally make commitments, see?
There won't necessarily be that much exciting stuff on the other guy but if you'd like to tag along, just email me (with your preferred email of choice) and I'll send you an invite. Unless you are my archenemy then maybe I wouldn't want you to read about my plans to destroy you. Which isn't nice but it's either me or you and I'd probably prefer it to be you.
"There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes.
So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt."
-Reality Bites-
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Friday, October 17 : 10:05 PM : 2 comments :
"You always feel like you are the only one in the world, like everyone else is crazy for each other, but it's not true. Generally, people don't like each other very much. And that goes for friends, too. Sometimes I lie in bed trying to decide which of my friends I truly care about, and I always come to the same conclusion: none of them. I thought these were just my starter friends and the real ones would come along later. But no. These are my real friends."
-Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You-
More Than Meets the Eye
Monday, October 13 : 4:23 AM : 0 comments :
A few months ago, while we were all at a bar in DC, the topic came up of "Who is your nemesis?" In fact, it kind of became the question of the week as we tried to figure who each other's nemeses were and such. It was a pretty exciting question. The problem was, people were kind of confusing nemeses with archenemies. My definition for nemesis was basically that while you may not necessarily like them, they are certainly in your life in this way that's unavoidable, and thus you kind of tolerate each other. Also, it's very likely you share a similar social niche -- or have fought over a girl (guy). You don't hate them though, because then that would be crossing the line from nemesis to archenemy.Well, leave it up to Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs author Chuck Klosterman to have already covered this exact topic four years ago. Shit. I can't even talk about this topic anymore because Chuck already broke it down so well. So read on and then think about who your nemesis might be. And should you find that you've also got an archenemy, it goes without saying that I will help you defeat him/her/it. After all, knowing is only half the battle. The other half is us teaming up and kicking ass.
"What you need is a) one quality nemesis, and b) one archenemy. These are the two most important characters in the life of any successful human. We measure ourselves against our nemeses, and we long to destroy our archenemies. Nemeses and archenemies are the catalysts for everything.
Now, I know that you're probably asking yourself, How do I know the difference between my nemesis and my archenemy? Here is the short answer: You kind of like your nemesis, despite the fact that you despise him. If your nemesis invited you out for cocktails, you would accept the offer. If he died, you would attend his funeral and -- privately -- you might shed a tear over his passing.
But you would never have drinks with your archenemy, unless you were attempting to spike his gin with hemlock. If you were to perish, your archenemy would dance on your grave, and then he'd burn down your house and molest your children. You hate your archenemy so much that you try to keep your hatred secret, because you don't want your archenemy to have the satisfaction of being hated."
-The Importance of Being Hated-
Silly913
Monday, October 6 : 3:51 PM : 0 comments :
Listening to: Brett Dennen. Dude sounds like a lady. And looks like this. Kind of good music.It's over. All 2008 wedding festivities are attended and done with. In the aftermath, I stand strong like a sycamore despite my worries a few months ago that this might be a difficult time. Again I state that my speed dial came under heavy assault this year from Cupid and his machinations. But I've learned that it's not so bad. Really.
This weekend, I went to Susan's wedding and it really came into focus that this was it, she was married. I mean, she was technically married a few months ago but this was their celebration/declaration to the public. Her reception in Hollywood was quite different than most weddings. For one, there was no banquet hall or whatever. Susan and Tony simply rented an art gallery for the evening, had photos and exhibits of their life together on the walls, and invited their friends and family for cocktails and h'our dourves. It was casual, unique, and quite a nice change of pace. All the traditional things were cut out and this was exactly what Susan wanted because it allowed the couple to spend time with their guests in an unhurried manner.
In terms of number of years, I actually haven't known Susan that long, relatively speaking -- only since the very tail end of 2001. I mean, we didn't attend college together, certainly never shared an office, and never lived in the same city. Much of our friendship was maintained over emails, AIMs, and phone calls. There was a time when Victor and I would consistently be in LA to hang out with Susan and her friends on the weekends, usually for clubbing reasons (or they might come down for sun and relaxation), but that tailed off eventually.
So it's like kind of a big success for our friendship to have come so far. I mean, it's been a long distance friendship more or less, and the way I am, that's usually difficult for me to maintain day to day closeness. In the beginning, the thing that drew us together was our shared experience of having lost a parent -- mine very recently, hers a few years in the past. It kind of jump started our friendship on this serious and trusting plane that just kept accelerating. Soon, she became my Go To Girl (a useful acronym even if it looks stupid in print) for all sorts of trivial and serious matters.One of the things I really like about Susan is her willingness to say what's on her mind. There's millions of times she's called me out on my shit and since I'm usually full of it, that's a very useful thing to have in a friend -- especially one that I feel like "gets" me so I don't just reactively dismiss everything she says. She's supportive but in a devil's advocate way, which is extremely valuable
Susan and I have talked about relationships and potential mates for so long that it's funny in a poetic way that she's ended up with Tony, whom we had all met on one of our first clubbing expeditions in LA. All these years of searching and there he was. It's pretty romantic right?
We used to "celebrate" Valentine's Day together during the times we were single and I'm delighted that she's now got a Valentine's date for life. So yeah, my February 14ths are free.
