it's the little things

while walking down bowery this morning, a man with a ponytail crossed my path to shoot a snot-rocket into the street. it was pretty epic. another gentleman walking near me witnessed this event and nodded his head and said "of course." he appeared both jaded and amused in the best way possible. like the gross parts of the city hadn't broken him yet.<3

image: kenley, whose dad is a tugboat captain.

Day 28 - A song that you are obsessed with

m.i.a. - bad girls. i thought my obsession with this song crested. but after much road trippin this past week, the obsession returned. i blame the jersey turnpike

Links to promote the happy

Craigslist Best-Of

Quotes about Optimism

You can do anything at Zombocom

Self-Doubt?

1000 Awesome Things

Day 27 - A song that you wish you could play

Play? Sing. I wish I could sing this.

what have you been up to?

- moved here
- ran central park, the brooklyn bridge and the manhattan bridge
- discovered a muffin/cinnamon bun hybrid
- someone mistook me for lena dunham, and dear god whyyyy
- ran into friends from elementary school (!!!)
- pranced around in the rain with one of my favorites
- walked mr. wallace a million times

I heart sangria.

What a deadly delicious summer drink. I never realize how potent it is until I stand up.

Thank You

Dear Philly,

I owe you a proper thank you. We had an amazing 4 years together. Thank you for kicking my ass and changing me into the person that I am. Thank you for the career, the friendships, the hilariousness and even the heartbreak. You are not an easy place to live in, but I am the better for it.

Seriously, thank you. I'm going to miss you and all of your weird, quirky charms.

Love,
Lola

Day 26 - A song that you can play on an instrument

I took piano lessons for about 11 years. One might think that an investment of that magnitude would result in some serious piano skills. But, I've retained very, very little.

Basically, this little girl is much, much better than I am. But, I can definitely play this song.


I can also do a reasonable rendition of Vivaldi - Spring (Four Seasons)

reckless heart

forward march,
full speed ahead,
directly into hearts of stone.

break pedals,
emergency levers,
speed bumps and rumble strips,
i grab for them all.

riptides and overtow
give way to clear waters
if you give a reckless heart time
to breathe.
to heal.

Buffalo weekend

- Mayer Hawthorne at the Town Ballroom. I swooned all over the place. Please marry me, Mayer.
- Knocked out a 7 miler around Delaware Park
- So much shopping with Momma Firmingham. Sooo tired.
- New favorite Buffalo bar
- Porch drinking with Emiloy in a ridiculous rainstorm
- Beagle snuggling.
- While running, I fell and skinned my knees and arms. The fresh wounds compliment my moving bruises wonderfully. It looks like someone beat the hell out of me. Really I just keep falling and knocking into things.

Highlight: heading back into philly on the 676, windows down, blasting Camp Lo - Luchini

"Without which it could not be; without which there is nothing; an indispensable and essential condition."

I can't believe it's been two years. I miss you, Andrew. I think of you often. You were brilliant, hilarious and wonderful, and I'm lucky to have been your friend. Thank you for your writing: The Sinequanon.

"Logic is Hell. It was necessary to pass through it for the past two years. Now that I  have emerged from it, after pursuing it to its utmost extremity (at least of what I  was capable of), I am undergoing a Metamorphoses. Exiting metaphysics and  physics and re-entering the existential. Investing in my life and heart instead of  propositions and abstract concepts!" - AD Iraci, 2/28/10

Day 25 - A song that makes you laugh

Tom Jones - Sex Bomb (peppermint disco remix)
In college, I took a class called "Party Dance." (You read that right.) For the final exam, I made up a dance to this song. It was pretty amazing.

what have you been up to?

- quitting my job! and also working a million hours
- listening to Frank Ocean
- packing things
- burlesque dance bachelorette party aka "working the mirror"
- watching terribly bad movies via netflix
- ironing out the details for the big move

New music! The Xx- Angels

Moar moosic

Day 23 - A song that you want to play at your wedding.
Love weddings and love dancing at weddings. (Also love wedding cake.) There is an art to picking nonpartisan wedding music, and based on recent trends, it's usually safe to go with Usher and Will Smith. Fine with me, but obviously I'm gonna say Madonna. Lots of 90s Madonna.





Day 24 - A song that you want to play at your funeral.
Can honestly say that I haven't thought much about my own funeral. Not really at the top of my planning agenda. But if I must, classical music...

Clint Mansell - Perfection (from Black Swan)

Getting my NY sea legs back

Just spent a solid weekend in NY apartment hunting, drinking and other shenanigans. I think I've got my sea legs back. Some highlights:

- Saw 7 apartments. Really liked 2. Just need 1!
- Fancy and delicious brunch 
- Ran the Williamsburg Bridge. Haven't done that in about 4 years. As it turns out, I am much much faster than I used to be.
-Visited the 131 and spent some QT with one of my favorite people.
- Watched two puppies (Dallas the border collie and Chicken the bull terrier) wrestle for at least an hour in the park. It was captivating, delightful and I could watch puppies play forever.
- Developed an affinity for Tequila shots
- Did you know that strawberry fluff exists? I did not.
- Post apartment hunting, I dominated the salad bar at Whole Foods. No shame. Only veggies.
- Watched a lot of Mets (!?) I don't know. Jenny and Josh got me into it. Some sort of gang mentality.
- Debated with a complete stranger in a bar about Obamacare. Nothing good comes of arguing SCOTUS past 2am.
- Did some park wandering, writing and head clearing.
 - My cab driver tonight asked me if I'm "this nice all the time." I laughed and told him that I try to be. And that's true. I really do. I'm trying very very hard to maintain my solid inner core of niceness and lola-ness through all this chaos and change.

I gently suggest that you run to this song.

Black Keys - Next Girl. Video nsfw (depending on your workplace of course)

aw yeah

This is my jam

This.

- Love this
- Want this
- Almost done reading this
- Had a hilarious conversation today about reading this which led to a discussion of this
- Discovered a new kind of this. (Pun intended?)
- Worn out from this
- Feeling like this

More songs.

Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy 
LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean. I know the song is 9 minutes long, but I love it. A few years ago I loaded this album onto my ipod and went for a long run. I was not expecting the awesomeness. When I first heard those synths hit, I pretty much lost my mind and jumped up and down on the running trail. Such a great song.



Cassisus - The Sound of Violence. How can you argue with that bassline? So good. I saw Cassius open for the Chemical Brothers about 10 years ago (yikes! I'm old) and it was pretty awesome. 



Day 22 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad 

Frank Sinatra - One for my baby (and one more for the road). I love Frank. This song is one of my favorites, and it always makes me feel better if I'm blue.

diary #8

Lola. Age 11. Excerpt from a very long entry.

April 27, 1993

At the fun fair at the cake walk, Name Redacted asked if the purple shirt that I was wearing was silk. I mean huh? What the heck? Weird.

Really Lola? Was it "weird" that a boy talked to you and asked about your cool shirt? Name Redacted was just being friendly and nice. And thus began my long history of oblivious awkwardness with the opposite sex.

youtube wormhole

I have no idea how it started, but I ended up watching a million dance videos this morning. dnb, jumpstyle, hardstep, shuffling and whatnot. Conclusion: Russian style is my favorite, and I need to learn how to do this...

jousty poppy dubstep

thanks for sending this my way, skottey. it's quite topical.

Random fleeting thoughts and conclusions

- The internet is full of heathens. Evidence: any comments section after any news article.

- Someone near but not in my immediate office space is quacking like a duck. I'm curious but find myself unwilling to go outside to investigate.

- I can say with confidence that 1. I don't like heavy metal and 2. Mosh pits still exist.

- I just wrote a long, rambling thing here about peanut butter and then deleted it. Bottom line: peanut butter is delicious.

- "People want to do business with people who enjoy what they do. And, if you enjoy what you do, you’ll pour yourself into it, which creates success"

- I want to go to there

- Song challenge continues! 
Day 20 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
 Angry Lola = a very rare occasion. If I'm crabby, I'll usually listen to something neutral and calming to force quit the negative stuff. So, here's a few:

Blu Mar Ten - Drive



Dj Krush featuring Esthero - Final Home



Unkle - Be there 

Difficult question. Multiple answers.

Day 19 - A song from your favorite album.
 Really hard to choose! I have a lot of favorite albums. So here's a sampling...

Zero 7 - Home (When It Falls)



Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke (Songs in the Key of Life)






M.I.A. – Hussel (Kala) 



Roni Size/Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag (Newforms)

7.3.12

"June 2012 was a terrible month with a shitty headspace, but it gave birth to some amazing things"

I just gave my two weeks.

Soon.

weekend recap: many awesome things

- having a beer *near* but not with Dale of Top Chef fame.
- impressing bartenders with origami t-shrts
- wandering Astoria with skottey and his kickass border collie
- eating popovers and visiting the twilight zone with nate
- hill work in prospect park
- bug bites, banter and beer
- an extremely hot, humid, butt-kicking 10K where I ran through sprinklers, freely dumped water on myself and placed 552nd out of 2,460 womenfolk
- bought a very comfy flowy purple dress that I want to wear every day forever
- returned to philly with a better headspace after a ctl+alt+del and many, much needed lightbulb moments

 oh yeah, and the song thingie

Day 18 - A song that you wish you heard on the radio

The Rapture - It takes time to be a man. I really love the new album; this song in particular. It meanders in a such a classy, relaxing way