‘Awesome’ Category

  1. I have nothing interesting to say.

    April 22, 2009 by ms. xandra

    Watch this instead:

    Category Awesome | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. Pressing concerns!

    April 16, 2009 by ms. xandra

    1.  So, apparently my bank will let me custom-design a debit card for free.  Like, I pick a picture, upload it, and they make me a debit card with said picture upon it.  So obviously the question now is:  what is the ridiculousest possible picture I could put on a debit card?  This is a very important decision.  So far I have thought of:

    a) Mulder and Scully

    b) Unicorn

    c) My own face

    d) Collage of the above

    2. Also,  WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME ABOUT THE ECHO PARK TIME TRAVEL MART????

    Category Awesome | Tags: | 3 Comments

  3. Dear Los Angeles: A love letter in three scenes

    March 9, 2009 by ms. xandra

    1.  On the bus today, headed towards Hollywood and Highland, I overheard the Jesus impersonator talking to the Haunted Tour of Hollywood tourguide.  There has been drama, it seems, amongs the people who dress as characters and pose for pictures with tourists in front of the Chinese Theatre.  There was once only one Superman, now there are two.  And Old Superman (“Christopher Reeves Superman”) punched New Superman (“Dean Cain Superman”) in the face.

    2.  Bathroom graffitti I saw the other day that really wouldn’t be at home in any other city:  “Trevor does his own stunts.”

    3.  This post-it note – which I found on the counter in front of the teller’s window at the bank at Sunset and Vermont – now lives inside my wallet, because it is the number one, best ever piece of found art:

    I want a horse please

    DARE TO DREAM, LOS ANGELES.

    Category Awesome, Los Angeles | Tags: | No Comments

  4. And also I fell and skinned my knee. Luckily, my heart is made of fourtanium

    February 15, 2009 by ms. xandra

    1.  Dear my students:  the question about “which movement is this song associated with” was referring to a social movement.  Therefore the answer is not “the movement of swaying your hips.”

    2.  Dear American Cinematheque:  Thank you for having a Valentine’s day double bill of Baz Luhrmann films about how if you fall in love, things become horrible and then you die (poison or the consumption, your choice), which is basically consistent with my worldview these days.

    3.  Remember in Anne of Green Gables when Ruby Gillis had the consumption and everybody talked about how beautiful it made her and I was eleven years old and had never heard of the consumption before and didn’t know what Lucy Maud was talking about?  Actually, I think it was in Anne of the Island.  Anyhow, I think of Ruby Gillis every time someone dies of the consumption.

    4.  So Sam and I are doing this thing where we are only going to eat fresh fruits and vegetables for an entire week (STOP LAUGHING AT ME, I KNOW YOU’RE LAUGHING AT ME) because we think it will make us feel better and healthier, and I am personally hoping it makes me feel less depressed as fuck all the time.  So basically we are having a week without carbs and dairy and unnecessary sugar.  So, of course, today I went to Cafe Audrey to drink tea and grade midterms and this dude sits at the table beside me and proceeds to consume (and I am not even kidding) buttered bread with french fries on it.  “Would you like a fry?” he said.  “No thanks,” I replied, and my heart wept, for my heart loves carbs.

    5.  This is mostly of interest to Tanya:  Apparently there is this goth bar in Downtown LA that has mod night on Thursdays?  So, like mod goth night?  Or goth mod night?  It sounds…important.

    6.  Because of a conversation I had today, I’ve been thinking a lot about these things and these things, and about how I don’t understand the impulse to lie and to hurt people. It’s frustrating.  It’s even more frustrating when people just get away with it.

    7.  Because of the Oscars (seriously) my bus stop up near the Egyptian was moved from its normal, well-lit corner to a sketchy, scary corner.  Please join me in boycotting the Academy Awards to protest this injustice (not that I was going to watch them anyhow).

    8.  I am 25 years old and I have never owned my own car and this realization makes me feel kind of inadequate, even though I don’t even want a car.  What I really want is, like,  a unicorn.

    9.  This is my 600th blog post!  Only 66 more until I have the blog of the beast.  I think I will celebrate that momentous occasion by drinking red wine out of a teacup and then falling asleep in front of a rerun of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

    Category Angst, Awesome, Books, Food, Los Angeles | Tags: | 2 Comments

  5. Pretty good.

    November 26, 2008 by ms. xandra

    Things are pretty good.  I mean, yesterday I touched my favorite human being in all of history (ie:  David Lynch), today I am drinking Mexican mochas (most delicious coffee incarnation yet) and am productively writing a paper about Beth Ditto (fuck yeah), there is only one more week left of classes this quarter and then it is time for holidays, after the holidays I am going to Hawaii where I will give a paper and then sit around in a hammock wearing an Esther Williams swimsuit and drinking mai tais, then next quarter I am taking a pop music seminar in which I plan to finally do some Very Serious Scholarly Work on the B-52s (it’s about time) and an independent study in which I plan to . . . probably read a lot of French theory and curse a lot (but I asked for it and am pretty excited about it), and IT IS RAINING.  Mostly I am just very happy about the rain.  The rain has made all of my angst and woes disappear.  Did you know that constant sunshine can really get oppressive?

    I am thinking of going away for spring break to some place really dreary.  Maybe Seattle?  I hear it rains all the time in Seattle.  And I could take that train that goes from LA to Seattle along the coast and takes, like 36 hours.  I think I would like that.  I like traveling on buses and trains because it is an excuse to not do anything, because what can you possibly do?  I also enjoy doing those kinds of things alone.  I like spending days without talking to anyone because it lets me get really weirdly self-indulgent and introspective and decadently melancholic and I don’t have to care about what anybody else thinks.  (Unfortunately, this tendency probably means that eventually I am going to die alone and be found days later, half-eaten by my pet ocelot, but what can you do?)  I want to go on holiday and I want for there to be no sunshine for days.  I want to be able to wear boots and my raincoat that makes me look like a Russian spy.  With a cardigan underneath.

    Oh, and I am so excited right now because the radio in the cafe where I am working is playing The Shirelles!  I love it when The Shirelles happen.

    Ok, I should go home because I have been here for four hours.

    Category Academe, Awesome, Coffee, Los Angeles, School | Tags: | 1 Comment

  6. TODAY I SHOOK THE HAND OF DAVID LYNCH.

    November 25, 2008 by ms. xandra

    AND IT WAS SUCH AN IMPORTANT EVENT THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ALL IN CAPS.

    Category Awesome | Tags: | 5 Comments

  7. Please can I spend the rest of the quarter sitting around, drinking tea, and listening to the Marvelettes?

    November 23, 2008 by ms. xandra

    I feel like I have nothing good to say, but since it’s been a long time since I posted because everything has been so busy, I feel like I should say things anyhow.

    Hey, guess what!  I finally got to see Cute With Chris Live after all these years of trying to get tickets.  And it was great.  There were only seven people in the audience including myself, which was sad, but kind of good because it meant that afterwards I got to shake the hand of The Man Himself and tell him that I liked his little internet show.  But he seemed really bummed that nobody came and apologized for it being so lame and I was all like, it totally wasn’t lame, Chris Leavins, I mean, you introduced me to this clip of a contestant in the Miss Arizona pageant playing the Star Wars theme on a trumpet (badly) and also you were really funny and awesome and I like your white suit.  And the show was really thoughtful and sweet, and a really interesting meditation on the internet as mass media and as a vehicle that connects people, and I just liked it quite a bit.  If any LA friends feel like checking it out, I’d probably go see it again, because, as former Fringe Festival Co-Maven, I like to support good performance art when I can find it.

    And after Cute With Chris I got a Guiness Milkshake!  And a giant cheeseburger.

    Last night I had a horrible dream wherein I was making out with that sociopath I dated last year, and as a result I have been thinking depressed thoughts about the past all day, BUT THEN!  I saw this, which Carly posted, and it made me SO HAPPY because it is pretty wonderful:

    And I shall close with a tip to all of you budding undergraduate plagiarists out there:  if you are going to cut and paste stuff from a website into your paper, at least change the typeface so that everything matches, ok?  It is also a good idea to remove links to other Wikipedia articles.

    Category Angst, Awesome, Food, Los Angeles | Tags: | 6 Comments

  8. A Very Important Thing that I have just found out about!

    October 24, 2008 by ms. xandra

    The Lost Skeleton Returns Again is premiering in Los Angeles on November 9th!  And I get to work at the screening, which means I will get to maybe become best friends with the lady who plays Animala, which will be awesome.  Oh, my glamorous life as a Hollywood socialite.

    If you have not done so, please go watch The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Trail of the Screaming Forehead, like, immediately.

    Also, I have no idea what this is, but I cannot wait for 2009 because it sounds like it will be the Greatest Film of All Time.

    Also also, in case you haven’t noticed, I am, like SO into outer space these days.  But it’s a very specific vision of outer space.  It is, like, outer space in the mind of a twelve-year-old boy in approximately 1953.  It’s a magical place to be.

    Category Awesome, Culture, Los Angeles, Space | Tags: | 2 Comments

  9. Midnight oil

    October 23, 2008 by ms. xandra

    1.  Oh, I have had the best Halloween costume idea yet.  In fact, it might just be my best ever idea yet.  I’m not revealing the full details here yet.  It’s a surprise.  It involves a lot of makeup in a colour called “Hot Rod Metallic Green.”  And a laser gun.  And a pencil skirt.

    2.  Which of the following do I want more?  I can’t decide.  You should tell me.

    a) an electric ukulele,

    b) a bass guitar,

    c) a sewing machine,

    d) a tattoo of Dorothy Parker.

    Please note that I cannot actually afford to get any of these things.  This is all just conjecture based on the question “what if I happen upon a sack of gold doubloons in the middle of the sidewalk tomorrow?”

    3.  On Friday, my Canadian friend Shelina and I are going to see a Canadian band play at Spaceland.  Shelina and I (and it’s worth pointing out that we’ve only known each other for, like, a month, and are from opposite ends of the country) both have weird, tangential friend-of-friend connections to said band, which is doing nothing to disprove the common trope of “all Canadians know each other.”  Sometimes there is nothing to do but to embrace the idea of being a walking cliche.

    4. Is it elitist to be wary of going on a date with someone because they have never heard of Leon Trotsky? Probably.  Also, do I talk about theremins too much? I feel like I talk about theremins all the time, with everybody, and probably spew a lot of crap because my two facts that I know about theremins, that I bring up in these seemingly daily conversations that I have with strangers about theremins, are:

    a)  Moog used to make build-your-own theremin kits,

    b) This one time, Leon Theremin was kidnapped by the KGB (and wikipedia just told me that this fact isn’t even actually true).

    5.  My favourite thesis statement:  “Ray Charles had a huge influence on poplar music.”

    6.  Ok, fine, I will tell you what my Halloween costume is.  I am going to be a sexy librarian.  FROM SPACE.

    Category Awesome, Canadialand, Space, Theremins | Tags: | 3 Comments

  10. Holy crap, it’s my apartment!

    October 20, 2008 by ms. xandra

    Inquiring minds wanted to know what my new(ish) digs look like – pictures are now on Flickr.  Here is a tantalizing teaser to show you just how fucking rad my bedroom is:

    Also, what you cannot see in these pictures is the epic amount of closet space that I have.  I have so much closet space that I have an underwear closet, which houses nothing but a dresser full of underwear and all my frilly lady things.

    Category Apartment, Awesome | Tags: | 1 Comment

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