Well.  It’s been a while.  I’m not dead, nor is my computer - though I’m considering which death would be more tragic.  I have only one explanation for not actively letting you all know what’s going on: in the words of my friend, Anna, “Oops.”

That’s not to say I haven’t been busy.  In the past three months I’ve moved to a new apartment, doubled the amount of freelancing I’m doing, taken on more responsibility at HeaveMedia, completed a massive Capstone project (resulting in my graduating from graduate school), gone to Las Vegas, gotten punched in the face in a bar in Midtown Manhattan, gotten a new bike, thrown numerous barbecues, interviewed a band in Boy George’s old apartment, gone home to Chicago twice, saw David Bowie cooking eggs, and gotten my tan on an obscene number of times on my new roof.

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The Myers-Briggs test was first given to me during my freshmen year of college.  Approximately 48-hours after returning from an alcohol-induced hospital visit (thanks, big 10 colleges and bigger-10 egos), I found myself filling in an unending amount of bubbles on an 8-page scantron.  The visit to a school therapist was mandatory in order for me to maintain residency in the dorms, so I decided not to voice my displeasure with the idea that this overweight, underworked human being could glean a portrait of my personality based upon a #2 pencil and unending writer’s cramp stemming not from a Kerouac-esque stream of consciousness, but nearly an hour of responding to questions by elementary “coloring inside the lines.”

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I’ve been a fan of Garrison Keillor ever since I was a little kid.  I didn’t have much say in the matter at the time because my parents refused to listen to anything but NPR when in the car, but that’s beside the point.  I’ve grown to like almost all the same programming as my parents (it makes my chest hurt to say that) and Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” is no exception.

Since I usually can’t catch it when it airs (sorry, I do have slightly more important things to do Saturday nights…) I subscribe to the podcast that updates every Monday with his segment, “News From lake Wobegon.”  Garrison performs this monologue every week by himself without a script and it’s usually one of the most uplifting, honest, and accessible portions of the show.  This week’s was particularly good, ending with the line:

“He says, ‘We’ll think about it…’ that’s all you have to do, is just think about it.  If you think about it you will say ‘yes’ eventually.  We know that.  Life is irresistible.  Love is irrisistible.  If he thinks about it, he’ll go.”

Here’s a link to all the podcasts, the first one is the most recent/the one I’m talking about (like I said, it’s a good one).

“Human beings are funny. They long to be with the person they love but refuse to admit openly. Some are afraid to show even the slightest sign of affection because of fear. Fear that their feelings may not be recognized, or even worst, returned. But one thing about human beings puzzles me the most is their conscious effort to be connected with the object of their affection even if it kills them slowly within.”

-Sigmund Freud

I wish he hadn’t done enough coke to kill a horse, nor that most of his extrapollated work has been well-refuted by now.  Sometimes the things he says are really spot on.

I’m proud to say I’ve done this:

Today, I am flying from here:

To a location 2,158 miles away, where things should be different.  Au contraire.  I will likely see and walk on this:

Replicas of things always creep me out.  Replicas of the place I call home with the inclusion of neon lights?  Well, we’ll see how this goes…

My brain is already feeling more fractal than a Derrida hypothesis and I can feel the spirits of DeLillo, Pynchon, Wallace, and Thompson descending upon me.

Wish me luck.

That last post was a little harsh.  Anyway.  This is what’s really been happening:

On Thursday, I rode the subway all the way through Brooklyn, to the AirTrain, straight to the ever-festive, newly remodeled Terminal 5 at JFK.  I fly in and out of this terminal quite often, as I’m building JetBlue points for free trips to such charmingly demure locales as Bogota, Colombia soon.  Nonetheless, it never ceases to amaze me.  This place makes me feel like Schaumburg, Illinois took a Woodfield Mall-sized dump on Queens and JetBlue decided to jump on the shitstorm that ensued and open shop.  What results is an airport terminal complete with fountains, skylights, plants, a LaCoste store, numerous places to get drunk and eat Buffalo wings, and a food court:

A quick vid of Terminal 5:

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I’m currently in Illinois, in the suburbs of Chicago, and I just got done paying all of my medical bills.

I think this is about how I should be feeling.

Laced and happy, seething underneath.  Where is Brooklyn?  Where is cheap coffee?  Why is it that I have to drive a car everywhere in this town?

Most of you know that I get around this city on a bicycle as much as possible (yes, my surgeon okay’d me to ride again.  I’m so happy).  There was an article in the New York Times recently that proposed some interesting viewpoints on how cyclists are viewed in this city these days.

It’s an interesting article, even if I don’t agree with the “proposals” he makes (I’m a bit more militant about demanding respect from everyone despite me running red lights.  I do endorse more signalling though.), at least it gives some perspective on how we’re actually seen by pedestrians.  If nothing else, that’s a bad-ass picture of Tone on the front page, rocking the same frame that I’m riding.

Click through here.

I was turned on to this project by my friend, Anna.

21 Maps of New York, real and imagined by amazing artists.  It really draws out the idea that this place, where I am, where you are, wherever we go, is just as much experiential as it is the numbers on the buildings on the labeled streets.  It makes all this asphalt animated.

My favorite: Lordy Rodriguez re-imagines Manhattan in an almost Blade Runner mindset.  Fragmented, angry, outposts of calm, a downtown financial district fortified by a wall and extensive security.

See the entire project here.