Hustler of Culture

goodnight, storyteller.

i have edited and reread this post at least a hundred times in the last three days. i feel i can't do this entry justice so i can't commit to pushing the publish button. anyway, here goes...

a lot of celebrity deaths have been reported in the news recently. i usually don't pay too much attention to this kind of news. i believe that everyone has something to contribute to the world, but not all who pass were as unique an individual as george plimpton. i will miss a man i never knew.

i do too much.

there are a lot of things on my to-do-list these days. some important (renew passport, write will, transfer my california drivers license to new york; i've lived here for 2 1/2 years now) and some not so important (buy a jeff covey model six stool for milind at the moma store with my membership discount). everyday i look at my list and i feel a little defeated. this list is getting me down. i'm wondering am i taking on too much or am i just doing what i always do and to just nevermind and keep on truckin'? maybe now that i'm in my 30s i just can't hustle the way i used too.

i'm desperate for longer days and i think i need a personal assistant. it'd be nice for someone to do my laundry. i haven't washed clothes in five weeks. freshdirect takes care of the groceries but i still have to run to whole foods for the meats (organic, non hormonal, etc.). there's a bag of old clothes i have to donate to the salvation army that's been sitting in silvio's office for two weeks. there are emails from friends and family wondering what am i up to these days. i try to respond as soon as they hit my inbox, but i just can't get to them all.

insurance is legal highway robbery.

recently, the east coast experienced a little bit of hurricane isabel; some more than others. here in new york we had strong winds but it was a welcome change to the sticky, hot and humid weather. a little further south, washington, d.c. was getting drenched in rainstorms and strong gales.

my parents live in arlington, virginia, home of the arlington national cemetery and a pretty suburb of washington, d.c. somehow arlington got stuck in the eye of the storm and isabel ended up blowing out powerlines, flooding roads and knocking trees over.

little brother. little fame.

lobo was on mtv tonight. mtv's doing a show for limp bizkit's album launch of results may vary and i saw my brother for a second. i am tivo'ing the series (1/2 hour show at 6 pm every day this week) and watching only because i want to see if my brother's going to get any air time. i don't know why, but i am happy to see him on television. oddly, it makes me proud of him. i hate most people on television but at the same time, i am happy to see my brother on the idiot box.

i think fame's really fascinating. i hate and love it. i love that my brother has an autographed college jordan jersey and a s.w.a.k. picture from halle and it makes him happy but he also has a wall of pictures of himself with some pro atheletes and girls with boobs bigger than my head (e.g. brooke burke). i am guilty of collecting memorabilia myself and i sometimes wonder, what for?

if i could be famous, i'd want to be famous like my uncle mike. he's respected in his field and industry heads know his name, but he can still go to whole foods and buy kefir without disruption. or i'd want to be famous like the dalai lama -- loved by all decent human beings for being a decent human being.

not so secretly, i root for my brother's impending success. then he can produce the film in my head that i've yet to get on paper. work hard little brother so your sister can ride your coattails...

the secret is lost on you, unless you've been to tokyo.

sofia coppola did good with "lost in translation". not that she did bad with "virgin suicides", but her sophomore film defines her "girlishly dreamy" style and delivers a movie that touches the heart and head. i'm not going to review the movie or talk about the characters (jane's review by the way, is top buzz). i'm just going to blab my love for some things japanese.

i think i liked "lost in translation" so much because i saw a lot of my own tokyo-experiences in the movie. anything in life that i can personalize, i like even more. people have been lost in life and lost in love but very few people i know have been lost in tokyo! strange predicaments, all night clubbing, the surreal taxi ride with your polite white-gloved chauffeur at 4 am...it could happen anywhere, but it's magical when it happens in a country so foreign, you can't decipher signs or speak the language.