SUPERBAD

was my favorite movie of 2007... Juno was alright... anyhew i still need to go see PTA's latest & Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd & my winter movie experience should be complete... oh and if Once was 2007 then that one i like a lot as well, on the sappier side of things...

KOMBUCHA

i'm weeding out the alcohol from my life, for now, for different reasons... my new drink of choice is KOMBUCHA (gingerade or cranberry explosion) cuz it's divine for detox & for boosting my immune system... i'm posting this from my mobile so can't go thru the trouble of getting u links on KOMBUCHA so look it up cuz it's worth it (find it on www.blackle.com)... the fermented shroom aftertaste takes sum getting used to (but it reminds me of a drink I hated as a kid & now luv... ah nostalgia!)... anyhew, get sum (whole foods or wild oats) & try it! it will change ur life... big hug, m:)

ps: I need at least 2 bottles a day now to make my life a fuller one; kombucha is my new religion... wow, I started out catholic till I was 12 then jewish till I was 18 (well jewish school at least cuz israëlite students were not only sexier but wealthier, and the synagogue was more fun)... I have yet to explore my huguenot/protestant & russian/georgian orthodox sides; maybe when I get senile & embrace regression!)... to make a long story short it's now all about the kombucha!!! for balance, drink tons of water throughout... if ur like me & that sounds like too much of a task, try sparkling water (i alternate between perrier, pellegrino, gerolsteiner & my favorite: salty tasting but full of minerals APOLLINARIS)... if u prefer flat water, get some barley tea for coloring & flavor! azalea's xmas prezie to me was a trip to the korean supermarket for a huge box of barley tea bags (it has no caffeine/théine in it & helps ur body cleanse). lucky for me, I love the taste of barley, and even more how good it makes me feel...

HAPPY HOLIDAZE

i just sent my laptop away to apple care to revive it & all, so i will mostly be left with checking emails & replying to them via my treo, but i won't be making new playlists or adding to my blog till i get my laptop back in top shape...  in a way, it's almost liberating not to have it for a while.  back to basics: books, magazines, newspapers, pen & paper...

MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS EVERYONE & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  BONNE ANNÉE!!! PROSPERO AÑO NUEVO!!!  

and happy birthday jesus... and happy birthday to me one exact week later...  

much love,

m:)

rain or shine...

it's really funny to call home one of the most famous metropolis of the world, the city of angels (and angelic demons). everywhere i look, it's safe to say that only 100 years ago this was nothing else than an arrid desert. cactus trees were the only towers around, and everything else around them were rocks, sand & not much else... in only 100 years, los angeles bloomed into one of the most influencial & recognizable cities on the planet. what was a desert a century ago has become a myth for the rest of the world, a magnet for those who sacrificied so much to chase a californian dream, and a jackpot for a very few lucky ones who have been smart & savy about reinventing themselves... this is the promise land for those who aren't afraid.
in LA, nothing is permanent. the only constant is that survivors stick around while victims don't... in a way, it's this sense of non-permanence that has attracted me to LA; it's familiar to my life, the african & latino american cities i've lived in & passed through, the cultures i've navigated through, etc etc... this is why i've never gone back to europe or i'm not so attracted to new york city, where if not "non-permanent" at least everything there always seems so solid, with centuries of organized establishment, centuries of architecture & centuries of lived-in ways around you at all times constantly, with no sense that everything could just suddenly collapse at any moment. somehow, i long for stability like that, yet i can't seem to want to set my anchor in such places ever since i got a taste for the unpredictable, the new, the "in a constant state of development" (is there a word for that?)... when LA blows up in flames, survivors come right back to rebuild bigger, smarter, stronger on the ashes of their former life & belongings. this is the promise land of survivors & this is where i feel i belong... here are a few pix i took from my house of some of the fires we had in 2007:

self-portrait

this was taken months ago, in the spring of 2007 i think. i stretched my arm & caught these hotties by my side, all friends of my ex, after some wedding in malibu... i was just going through old pix & i just love this one... i'm barely innit but i'm only as hot as they are:

ps - ryan (stud in the middle) & diana (mexican goddess with the glasses on the right) are the newlyweds!

chavez...

can suck castro's farts:
check this out and here it is in pix. this one is my favorite:

singing in the rain

it's raining in los angeles & i love it!!! i can't remember when's the last time i saw rain in california!!! it's the best! no more fires, time for floods & mud slides & car accidents woohoo!!! i'm just going to listen to one of these 3 playlists on my ipod & take a long walk with chicho in the rain...

I LUV FALL 2007 - pop up player

Love Will Make Us Grand - pop up player

even this older funner playlist will work, cuz in LA the rain makes me happy, it's like getting a little taste of belgium without having to live under grey skies almost every day of the year. today is perfect!!!

actually this is the perfect playlist for this perfect day:

MIAMI NICE - pop up player

the news says it's going to rain all night. YAY!
OVER & OUT:

give it a little bit more...

snoop vs stevie

HERE'S THE REAL DEAL:

pj harvey rules... the king patches it up!

ok i'm on a roll of posting songs with their youtube videos. this needs to stop! but before it does, i just have to share my love for pj harvey with these 2 sublime songs. one off her latest album; the other from 2001 when i went from enjoying her songs to becoming completely emphatuated & transported by her art... please crank up the volume or put your best headphones on for these.

SILENCE (this one is kinda gripping, does that make me a girl?!):


RID OF ME (it will always be in my top 3 pj harvey songs):


aiiiight, well since pj harvey is a queen in my book, i thought i'd close this posting with the one & only king, with an encouragingly uplifting song, maybe my favorite elvis song to rock out to...

PATCH IT UP (watch it till the end):


PATCH IT UUUP... WITH A WHOLE LOTTA LUUUV... fuck yeah!

DEAR SAINT NICOLAS:

these are the plushies that i want...
- BRAIN CELL cuz i need to replace the ones i fried in my day!
- WHITE BLOOD CELL cuz the immune system luuuvz'em!
- H.I.V. so we can kick his nasty ass & beat it to a pulp!!!
find your own frennemy plushies:
- Giant Microbes website
anyhew...

on December 6th, let me remind you all that many parts of the "western" world, such as my Belgian homeland, celebrate Saint Nicolas Day... he was REAL. Santa Claus is only a lose interpretation of Saint Nicolas conveniently fabricated in the US of A by the Coca-Cola company, for their advertising campaign, and to boost end of the year sales... genius! anyhew, so lets be real on December 6th, and give each other a little realness without the coke infused aspirations!!!

Saint Nicolas is the patron saint of students & children. On December 6th, children (and now adults as well) receive gifts from Saint Nicolas (aka Père Noël on December 25th , trans. Father Christmas). Saint Nicolas travels with his "shadow", a dark companion called Père Fouettard (trans. "Father Whip" aka Peter The Black aka Bogyman) who follows Saint Nicolas & reminds him of just how each child has behaved during the past year. Saint Nicolas rewards wise children with presents. Père Fouettard seeks the misbehaving ones for a spanking or to correct them with his long black whip... this is sooo christian... or "perfected jewishness" as crazy kookoo gaga retard fuckface dimwit arrogantly offensive ann coulter would put it! ummm, i digress...
here's an illustration of my patron saint & his shadow:

10 days till Bogyman comes knocking...
are you ready for your spanking?

The Mighty Boosh...

is the funniest show on tv, and this is why...

and here's my absolute favorite song right now...
vampire week-end - mansard roof


something about the vibe of that song makes me think of the beatles. although i was always a much bigger fan of the rolling stones, i figured i'd post my all time favorite beatles song (and the video is perfect)...
the beatles - you've got to hide your love away

songs i like now...

holy hail - cool town rock


cazals - to cut a long story short (spandau ballet cover)


my toys like me - barnaby

reverend billy asks...

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? - trailer

APACHE YEAH!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BREAK...

...i'm the keyboardist!

VIVA VENEZUELA!

i never celebrated thanksgiving with my family, since it's not one of "our" holidays. but with everyone off with their families, & fresh from seeing them all in D.C. i recently found these old pix taken in venezuela, about 10 years ago. i was still in my late teens or 20s; my folks were still in their 50s. if i didn't live with them in caracas anymore, i was here in college & back for a few weeks only, in between semesters.
every christmas vacation, my folks would rent a house along the venezuelan coast or on some island a short boat ride away. they would never tell us anything about it; my brothers & i would never know exactly where we would end up until we got there, which would drive us nuts. we always ended up in the most amazing, secluded, relaxing places & spend some really good times together. as much as i love crazy caracas it was nice to leave the hustle & bustle of the city behind, as well as the protocol of the diplomatic or foreign community, the constant political instability & threat of another military coup d'état, scholastic obligations & responsibilities,... no television not even a radio and sometimes with only enough electricity for a few lightbulbs, iguanas wondering around, no staff, left to ourselves to clean & cook, or buy fresh oysters & seafood from the local fishermen, living off coconuts, red papayas, mangos, starfruits... and cold beers! sometimes we'd treat ourselves to some restaurant somewhere, in some cove, on some island or some small port, by getting a fisherman to take us there on his boat, then finding another one to take us back... shit, i need to figure out a way to make some cash & go back there, forever!!!
anyhew, here are the few pix i found; they were taken on one of those disposable kodak cameras, before we all had digital cameras of our own; these were truly simple & primitive family vacations. jeanie kindly scanned them for me...

the barone$$ & her amba$$ador of loVe - Magda & Gunter...

the kids - Eric Alexandre, Michaël Dimitri, Jonathan Nikolaï...

island home...

on a "crowded" beach...

an island "town"...

our private & remote beach...


it's never been one of our rituals, but still, it would be nice to spend thanksgiving with my brothers & my folks. i'm extremely thankful for them & everything they've done for me.

new york blows

MUGGINGS MAKING A COMEBACK

although, i would have loved to see how that crazy bitch Foxy Brown handled it! can you imagine?

frontline: darfur

my favourite show on pbs is Frontline. you can watch several of their past shows online... tonight is their premiere of ON OUR WATCH about what happened to Darfur & what lies ahead if we keep standing still. not to get all hippie on you but while we're about to stuff ourselves to celebrate how thankful we are, we can't ignore what hell others, such as the people of Darfur, have to endure "on our watch."

on a brighter note, i wish you all a great thanksgiving break, safe travels & tons of fun with the ones you love... and some rest before the holidaze party train takes off... i'm thankful to be back in LA, for living in southern california where close friends care for me just as much as i care for them & love, where i have many more acquaintances i enjoy having in my life, and where i can go shopping peacefully for a party, on a wednesday morning in the middle of a sunny november, at a farmer's market, just a block away from the pacific ocean, in what seems to be a million miles away from darfur, iraq, afghanistan, bangladesh, eastern congo, burma, pakistan, gaza, zimbabwe... and even south central LA or downtown skid row... so close, yet so blessed and grateful to be sheltered from it all...

if you're clueless about the aforementioned parts of the world, or other ones, i'll recommend 3 sources less likely to be biased:

BBC WORLD NEWS

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL
THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

these publications/sites will spare you from the gruesome details of the death of the plastic surgery ravaged mother of Kanye West, trust!

blog on eric & afghanistan

my brother, eric, the one who went to the naval academy in anapolis & was working at the pentagon, started a blog about his upcoming mission in afghanistan:
A BELGIAN SUBMARINER & AFGHANISTAN

endearing playlist

it's sorta "overcast" here in LA. so, here's a playlist i put together back in october, on my other --and private-- blog, i thought i should share it with the world. it's my "endearing" mix if you will...

AKOOSTIKALICIOUS - pop up player

AKOOSTIKALICIOUS - MP3 downloads

enjoy & share the wealth!

saturday jam

We're All PROSTITUTES

DEAR SANTA:

saints are of the past; sinners are of the future... i've been a bad boy, but mostly in a good kinda way, so i was thinking, that since i'm pro-green & all, i need a bike to get around, jump on public transpo with, take with me on a plane, and anywhere i chose to go & ride it (when i can't actually ride it). i found just the one for me. it's not so cheap, so feel free to kill 2 birds with one stone since my birthday is on december 31st...

THE PUMA 8 SPEED URBAN MOBILITY BIKE

i think i found it for cheaper if you get it directly from the designer, biomega... look for the boston bike (that's what they call it here):
BIOMEGA BOSTON BIKE
i like the naval grey color & all the accessories!!! it looks to me like it would be exactly like the one sold by puma without the puma endorsement & logo on it...

THANK YOU SANTA!
luv u mean it,
m:)

ps - here's more info on this amazing bike:
boingboing review
coolhunting review

opening ceremony...

is the coolest boutique opened in 2002 by 2 very laid back --stylish but not fashiony-- latino & chinese americans in nyc; they're just across the street from Q Department actually... just in case you've been hiding under a rock since last april, there is simply no reason anyone should ever leave LA for NY anymore, as Opening Ceremony opened on LaCienega Blvd. if you ever have some extra cash or need to get someone a cool birthday or holiday present, go check it out:
Opening Ceremony website
cool hunting review

wine & dancing

my mom emailed me this earlier this week:

Drink more wine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:
Water = Poop,
Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service.

i love dancers, i've even dated a few... but there's nothing more entertaining than non-dancers dancing sometimes, like these parisians in bibi tanga's latest video... basically, if you're on a budget, skip the dancers, get some wine, serve it to your white friends & have them dance in the streets, even let them choreograph themselves a little, and what you get isn't necessarily artsy fartsy, but surely entertaining:


fresh back from the east coast on monday night, i went to a party thrown by the french consulate & hosted by the cultural attaché... on the sunset strip yet fun & cool. i had great time. odille, the cultural attaché is a gorgeous parisian girl who was commissioned for the job for 3 years. she has now been here for a year & loves LA. it was great to meet her. i also met some fabulous lesbian artists, one french but who has lived in LA for 20 years (her parents moved here when she was younger) and who also speaks fluent spanish. i was introduced to her friends from buenos aires & san juan. i met some new yorkers who actually like LA, some french architects, some coked out fashion victims i enjoyed talking to for a minute, and this hot italian guy i could have sworn i met before, with his hot mexican girlfriend... he insisted we never met. i kept trying to figure it out. you see, i don't remember names easily, but i never forget a face... it hit me the next morning, he was in a reality tv show i think. i still don't knwo which one, i don't watch that many, and none of them regularly (ok, except for tila tequila's shot at love), but i know he was in a reality show. too hot & too dumb for the amazing race... hmmm, it'll come back to me...

halloween pix

here are a few more pix from nyc...
my favorite costume here was the nick nolte mugshot:

YOU

belgian band Das Pop made this video on margarita island, off the venezuelian coast, where i spent some good christmas breaks with my family... i luv this song.

loving you is easy...

CAUSE YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL.. la la la la la...

just be good to me (playlist)

home sweet home...
i've never enjoyed coming back to el lay as much as this time... there's no place like home!
anyhew, i finally took some time to put together a new playlist, inspired by my 2 weeks adventure back east, the change of season (away from the malibu fires, and whatnot). all i'm gonna say here is track #02 (just be good to me) was one of my favorites back in the 80s. back in brussels when i was 13, the punk thing was to move out of your house & live on the streets... instead, i moved into the attic & converted the space into my bedroom & party pad... my stereo system back then was a technics turntable with a built in cassette player & radio. remember when vinyl wasn't just food for deejays??? anyhew, i had "just be good to me" on a 45 vinyl, and i used to blast it as loud as i could & "at night I lock the doors, where no one else can see-ee"... i was just thinking, i was hopping from hot spot to hot spot, party to party in new york, and i don't remember stumbling upon anything innovative, musically speaking. it was all pretty bland. u know, the hits but nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. oh well... i did meet really cool people, made a few new friends & hung out with the cops in an undercover car for 2 hours, looking for my muggers. i can't remember how many times the words "fuck" or "fucking" or "fucked up" were exchanged between the cops & i. i kept apologizing when i was cussing but they told me it was all fucking good. they were also really concerned that i couldn't tell whether the girl who was one of the muggers was a girl or a guy. they kept asking me, and i kept saying it was a girl, then i started wondering, and i was almost sure it could have been a guy, i mean, she was really tall after all... anyhew, i just don't have a trannydar i guess... if i was a deejay, i guess this would be my set:

EVERYBODY HURTS...TOXIC (MP3 downloads)

here are a few more pix i took myself with my trusty digi canon the muggers forgot to notice in my back pocket... i wanted to keep my phone so bad. without it i couldn't reach my friends in nyc... remembering friends' phone numbers by heart is soooo pre mobile phone era! so i was thinking maybe i should offer my camera to trade it for my phone, but then i immediately realized they'd just take it as well, DUH! i should have yelled or something, but instead i was super cooperative, like uber uber compliant. not only did i walk away with my life, but all my teeth & no black eye. i'm so glad i still have my camera. it became my clock as i usually use my phone to check the time. my camera has a built in clock. phew! here are some snapshots i took...

i luv el lay

comrades... beautiful people:

it was really nice to be reunited with my 2 brothers, mom & stepdad; we hadn't all been together since last christmas in miami. of course, there was a little tension here & there, mainly due to my lack of focus & responsibility, compared to how organized they all are. but in the end, it all fits like a puzzle full of love. i cooked for everyone which was fun. i luuuv cooking so much. we also ate in some fine restaurants, did a little tourism together, went to some shows, and did the "lets meet back here in 3 hours" kinda thing so we could each be on our own, which was necessary. tuesday october 30th, i was walking around dupont circle, the "alternative" hood in d.c. & i stumbled upon the high heel race on what i guess is the gayest street in d.c... a whole street closed off for a race where most of the contestants were drag queens in high heels. i made some funny & interesting friends that night... d.c. is actually very liberal under its conservative appearance. i really like that... even the drag queens are conservative! anyhew, here are some pix, then some of new york were i spent 5 days as well...

with the family in d.c...

at café belga - their belgian menu has the widest selection of beers...

jonathan ran "the people's marathon" organized by the marine corps; it's the only big marathon in the US of A that doesn't give out prizes to the winners, that's why it's called the people's marathon. the course is really nice, passing through to all the monuments & landmarks of d.c. & alexandria... i still prefer my method of sightseeing: strolling!

and this is a pic of me my mother took on the d.c. metro, on our way to pentagon city to meet eric for lunch, and a family friend i hadn't seen since the 80s, wow i'm getting old...

i think i was trying to follow up on a work call, u know, not to feel like a total slacker i guess... besides, i'm always happy to do so when it concerns the few outstanding clients who have graciously opened their arms to me, myself & i... "L'Union Fait La Force" is what it says on the belgian passports, meaning Union Makes Strength... funny coming from a kingdom the size of LA to San Diego, yet divided in 3 federal states (Brussels-Capital bilingual, Flanders dutch speaking, Walloonia french speaking) where all sides keep trying to find ways to get independant, which has never happened due to the fact that all 3 regions have united under one king up till now... but as in any modern kingdom, the king is rapidly losing any kind of leverage he might have on all 3 sides, which has to be difficult to maintain considering the buraucracy (3 ministers for every department, one for each region, none of them ever agreeing on anything!)... how ironic, considering Brussels also is the capital of the European "Union." anyhew, back to my east coast journey...

in NYC, panOptic wrapped up a NEW VIDEO for John Wolfington, produced by Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth's label. the video was directed & animated by my friend gary who owns panOptic (i represent them as well). i really like the song & the vid... here's a cool review if interested in more info... (in case you're all spaced out or you lost yourself like the song says, let me point out that by clicking on the bold/italic/pink words you get to the links!).

i was mugged in the village haha (how 80s of me!), so my life line won't be back in service till i get a replacement treo phone. meanwhile, you can reach me on my personal mobile if you really need to talk; you have those digits if we're close enough. anyhew, here are a few more pix. not so much of stuff i shot, but of a few cool players & me...

1st night in the big apple, busted in a new york minute...

i'm just an ewok & this is erika from Au Revoir Simone...

if you're in london on 11.15 or paris on 11.19 go see them!

i think i'm scaring siobhan's friend...

with kara & arnold (this was at this guy dan's place by the way; dan is from LA and was making fresh burritos all night for everyone; still they just don't taste the same than in LA, where the mexican food is sometimes even better than in mexico)...

siobhan & i on our way back underground...

i also went to Q Department for some cake & veuve...

and here's jacqui & me... jacqui is from south africa, just like my mom who's actually belgian but born in capetown... i guess all south african ladies are classy, whether they're blonde or brunettes! jacqui is a genius; she has the most sophisticated taste & the most inspiring work ethic, having founded 3 companies in her 10 years in the big apple, Q Department being one of them, which i represent...

if it wasn't for the Q Dept. crew, i would have been stranded without a dime, and that would have sucked in the big apple! i love this crew!!!

the next day i met up again with the q dept. crew & we swung by a smuggler party (some production company for those of you who don't know)... it was a late halloween party so i brought my green lizzard mexican wreslter mask... i had purchased the mask in mexico city, back in 99 i think, when i was the production coordinator on a shoot for fuji television, being the only white guy on the crew who was fluent in spanish. we shot a few segments in the lucha libre arena in mexico city, and it was mayhem, not to mention brutal. anyhew, here's me wearing the mask in NYC...

the smuggler party was fun for a while then i left to join the SNL afterparty that started at 1am. my friend nery works for SNL & was able to get me in with a friend. she wasn't so pleased when i showed up with a friend -gary- & 2 girls from the smuggler party wearing no skirts or pants, just panty hoses (their costume was the hall of shame i think)... anyhew, we all got in & i joined nery at her table... it was at this place called bon appetit (a temporary pop-up restaurant by chef dina de laurentis or something & sponsored by the magazine, in the former space of the hard rock)... the food was amaaazing & the service impeccable. anyhew, i bummed a cigarette from amy pohler, and i bumped into seth meyers.

without skipping a beat, i totally geeked out when i saw my SNL hero for the past few years MAYA RUDOLPH. i loathe oprah & she makes the funniest oprah impersonation in the world. maya also makes the funniest donatella versace, whitney houston (amy pohler & seth meyers are in this one as well), and does the best rendition of american anthem in the universe as pamela bell! i never ever geek out but i couldn't control myself, i walked straight to her & introduced myself & we chatted for about 5 precious minutes. she was sooooo sweet, and i was such a dork! i can't believe how much of a dork i was... the only other time i've ever been starstruck was when mick jagger tripped on me sitting on the floor & fell on top of me, back in the 90s... i've even bumped into björk & wasn't starstruck (ok maybe i was too high back in the 90s to feel anything but...). of course, i topped it off total cliché style by bringing up maya's mom, MINNIE RIPERTON, and talking her up as well. minnie is one of my all time favorite female singers! anyhew, there were tons of hot security studs around & nery later told me barack obama was in the room & that's why. i never noticed him. all i gotta say is where do i sign up to be a black man running for the presidency?! i want me some security just like his! would have been nice when i got mugged!!!

nery was tired & SNL gets her a town car back home every saturday, or off to wherever else... but she went home, and instead i stayed out with gary who took me out to Béatrice, some "cool" bar in some basement with manhattan's version of what trendy is i guess. i can't really remember what part of town it was in, maybe soho, but it looked more village-ish (east or west?) or maybe tribeca. after the shock of meeting maya rudolph i just followed without paying attention to where i was going. Béatrice was fun, and the crowd was really friendly. gary met some girl, and i met 2 models & their lesbian friend from berlin. around 4am when they started kicking people out, we were guided to the side to stick around for a bit longer but i was just so tired. the models escorted me to the subway & i took my ass back to nery's for some sleep.

oh, here's a pic of nery & me the next day, in the upper west side, at some cuban place called calle ocho...

nery & i go way back, and she had absolutely no patience for my bullshit. i think i really tested her patience. i did cross a few of her boundaries & was called on it big time. but we had fun at calle ocho... real friends for life!

back in d.c. my brother eric & i went to the synagogue on our last night together for a while. i was flying back to LA the next day; he's going to afghanistan for a few months to help train government branches such as the armed forces & police enforcement or something like that. fuck, afghanistan!!! his life is so different than mine! here's eric & me:

this historic synagogue on 6th & I (chinatown in d.c.) has great music...

the music was sadly beautiful, yet infinitely soothing & delightful...

i really love d.c... it's small & kinda weird with lots of suits & uniforms being all normal or as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be in the metro or in a bar wearing a suit or some sorta camouflage military uniform. at the same time, it's nice to get my head out of that whole "super-onto-the-next-cool-thing" bandwagon everyone seems to pretend they're not on in lalaland or new york. ok, well some are on it & really don't know they are but visually, it's hard to differentiate what's real & what's not. trust me, in d.c. what u see is what u get, well, on the metro at least, or in bars i think... surely not on capitol hill! ok, i'm not making a point after all... still, there's something refreshing about d.c. & something familiar i guess, having grown up in the diplomatic corps. one thing that is undeniably great about d.c. is the music scene. it might be a small town, but there's always a good show from touring artists & locals alike. the day i left, eric was going to see my australian friend SIA who lives in LA but was performing that night in DC. she kindly put eric on the list. i left my brother in peace knowing he got to see sia. her voice warms the soul... upon landing in LA i already had an email from eric with the pix he took at her show:

...

sia is off to europe now, so please go check out her shows if you're on the other side of the atlantic. she's magical!

well, it's so good to be back in LA with my cheech, the best dog in the world!!! now i need to catch up with my doctor, my dentist & most importantly my psychiatrist, my therapist & my nutritionist... back to work!!! urgh... and back to sales & finding ways to pay the bills woohoo... usually when i leave NY i always leave wondering what it would be like to stay & live there. for the very 1st time ever, i can safely say that i couldn't wait to leave NY. there is no way in hell i'd want to live there. LA rules!!! the weather is swell'n dandy & the people are wonderful. i bumped into an old friend -howard- on the plane & he gave me a ride home. fuck cabs, fuck subways, fuck it all, except for LA, cars & the best friends in the world. well, for now... according to the cops in ny, greenwich village is the hotspot for muggers, so my advice is to stay the fuck away from the west village swine if u want to have a nice stay in ny... or just ignore it all together, LA is where it's at! i never thought i'd say this, but i love the cops, in ny at least, they've been so nice & have followed up with me 3 times already... then again, fuck the pigs, who needs'em outside of ny? u know what, fuck the east coast. i'll take fires & earthquakes over muggings & guns anytime!!! bring it on! (pardon my french!)...

i'll wrap this up with a pic of my d.c. lover, a big yellow panda bear who likes to hang out in the front yard... i wuv him!!!

...peace bread land, m:)

eric... lyon... antibiotics

my brother eric was born in Lyon, France, when i was 2 years old. from the very beginning he was the most american of the 3 brothers, maybe it was the freckles... i put together this slideshow opening with a picture of eric in france. the other pix eric took earlier this month upon returning to Lyon, the city where we both learned how to ride bikes... the city where it all began:

Lyon is the 2nd largest french city after Paris. it might not be the fashion capital & is a lot less flashy, but just as cosmopolitan, much sunnier & known as the capital of french gastronomy. many top chefs in Paris & around the world hail from Lyon. the city has some of the best restaurants in the world.
the Rhône streams across the city before providing the backdrop to the famous wine country known as Côte du Rhône that reaches the French Riviera a 3 hour drive down south. a 2 hour drive east takes you up the French Alpes. i remember in the winter we'd escape the rain for the snow, at the chalet that belonged to the Guerlains (the family who own the Guerlain perfumes). my mom had somehow become their friend & we'd go up there and spend the winter days building snowball towers. we'd make candle holders out of the snowballs assembled in pyramid towers, and light up the candles at night for eric & me, my mom, and her friends to enjoy while having evening picnics in the snow, or simply from the warmth of the chalet. i miss the snow...
i don't ever remember dads or men being around. i remember maya, my mom's finnish friend whose french husband had died. she was a young gorgeous widow who lived on our street & was figuring out how to take care of her family alone. there was françoise, the aristocratic wife of a big shot lawyer & her daughter jennifer who was my best friend back then. we were practically sisters haha. i remember when françoise had a car accident, and one of her sons flew through the windshield & died. jennifer was in the hospital for a long time & i would go visit her often. we were only 4 or 5 i think. we went to the same school together, our mothers holding our hands every morning & afternoon, on our way & back from school on rue de créqui. we lived close by each other in les Brotteaux, the "upper east side" of Lyon, and would play for hours in the "parc de la tête d'or." this park had dears in it -we called them bambis- and other animals, almost like a zoo. years later, soon after jonathan's birth (my youngest brother), we moved up to brussels. saying goodbye to jennifer was the first time i think i experienced overwhelming sadness, anxiety, and fear of loss. we wrote each other many letters & would be reunited over the summers in provence where they owned a countryside farm type thing we would go to once in a while. or on the french riviera. my mom, bothers & i would stay in a fancy gated community where my mom's best friend from brussels (and from the congo where they grew up together) owned a villa overlooking the mediterranean. jennifer's villa was right on the beach, but not a sandy one; it was all cobbles or whatever u call it. i always found it so bizarre, a beach with no sand. it would hurt sometimes but it was exciting, and there were no big waves, so it was nice for swimming. and there was emanuela, the wife of the italian consul; her daughters were older though. i can't remember their names. their birthday parties were girlie & fancy in a very old money kinda way. they intimidated me a bit, all i remember is that there was always tons of treats at the italians... as for my dad, he was somewhere in africa, business as usual...
so in my previous post i mention how eric is off to afghanistan. it seems so surreal... well here's his email announcement about it today:
I have been sentenced yesterday (Monday) to 365 days of forced labor in Afghanistan, courtesy of the US Navy. My sentence starts November 19th, I'll be flying out to San Diego (or what'll be left of it) for
in-processing, spend my time from November until February in Kansas for some GI Joe training (with some time off for good behavior during the holiday period) then go to Kuwait around 28 February to be sent to everybody's dream destination, Afghanistan. I won't be eligible for parole before I have spent 200 days in-country, that'll give me plenty of time to take some pictures, and you'll just have to wait a little to see them, probably no earlier than Nov 2008.
A submariner in a land-locked country, makes about as much sense as having a texan in the White House!
urgh, i still can't believe my own over educated super smart brother is going to be in afghanistan with a bunch of morons. i know i know, even morons don't deserve to go to war, but fuck, it seems so absurd they would resort to sending folks like my brother as well...
back to me, i have some sorta sinus & throat infection, and some skin rashes on my fucking face. of all places! i feel like a 12yo with acne & low self-esteem, which was never me... at least not in appearance. i faked it good. maybe it's karma, for ignoring the pizza faces back in the day. i don't remember ever making fun of them though... anyhew, i'm taking the antibiotics, cleaning my rashes & applying the cremes, and i'm praying to the greek gods that everything clears up before i land in washington d.c. on thursday. if i can find someone to keep chicho for longer, since i don't want my neighbor to have to take care of her for more than i asked, then i'll stay longer than scheduled on the east coast to spend more time with eric, maybe go to nyc, who knows...

rrromantical headbangers

i'm partied out before the party is over... friday night was the best. 1st, wanna was in town for a day, to deal with some LA business she had to resolve. so i drove through rush hour traffic to go see her at amy's house. i made a salad of endives & red beats with roquefort cheese, a little balsamic & oil, salt & pepper, a pinch of cinnamon & a few drops of lemon. we got to the beach around sunset & caught up in front of the pacific while chicho was running around freely. how so rrromanticallll!!! later on we got some dessert on abbot kinney in venice before taking wanna back to LAX. i fucking luv wanna so much. it was great to see her since she's moved back east to do her art stuff & all that...

then an tipped me on the justice "secret" party in a loft downtown LA. rita came with me & she pulled her credentials to skip the line & walk right in. i never take my camera with me anywhere, but somehow that night i had it. here are my pix:

big black bouncer:


hot kiss in the crowd:


big mouth:


hipster stripes:


sneaker love:


blonde kiss in the crowd:


poser heels:


i'm with jesus:


hands up:


crack ass:


paaarty:


vcr alert:


handshake & a smile:


kettle cock:


floored:

my favorite pic is the on of the absolute worse that could happen... to have dark skin with coke falling out of your nose. years ago at some industry xmas party, i had a coke induced nose bleed, even though i hadn't even done any yet that night. well i had the night before, and maybe even the night before that, i can't remember. it certainly had been a white xmas here in el lay! but i don't recall ever walking around in public with coke pouring out of my nostrils...

the nose bleed was awful though. i was just standing there at the bar. what i thought was a runny nose turned out to be a blood bath. i left all the drinks i was getting for friends on the bar and ran to jason, the man i was dating back then. or were we still dating? can't remember either. we were partying together, which is pretty much what we always did together. i hid behind him as the napkin i was holding to my face was being drenched in blood. my hands were covered in blood. i had to hide in the bathroom for a good 20 minutes. my fucking nose wouldn't stop bleeding. that was my most embarrassing coke induced situation ever. u know all the cokeheads at the party where just going about their shit thinking "sucks to be you dumb ass" and all i could think was how unfair it was to have that happen to me, and i hadn't even done any that night!

anyhew, back to the picture. i don't know this guy, but rita was talking to him & i asked to take their picture. i just told them to look up so i'd have a better angle of the vcr... good ol' VCR (i.e. visual coke residue)!

saturday i was going to go see sinden at the echoplex but i got too cozy at home. tuesday will see justice again, then wednesday jose gonzalez woohoo. i might bring my camera again... jose's show was also sold out but andreas nilsson, my favorite music video director at the moment, got me on the list today. yay!