It smells like heaven and it claims to be hypoallergenic. But six days of using this on my face has proven otherwise. If you get it in your eyes it burns like hell and my face is breaking out like I’ve been rubbing it with Crisco every night instead of something that claims to be keeping my pores clean with “pineapple enzyme.”
Monthly Archives: September 2009
The Most Interesting Thing I’ve Learned in Law School So Far
If you think I’m not in it, I beg to differ. I attend law school night school, instructed by professor Aaron. Much like TMZ’s Harvey Levin, he gives me the highlights.
Favorite thing yet:
At a late 1970’s American Bar Association seminar in New York, Richard “Racehorse” Haynes explained how to plead in the alternative:
“Say you sue me because you say my dog bit you. Well, now this is my defense: My dog doesn’t bite. And second, in the alternative, my dog was tied up that night. And third, I don’t believe you really got bit. And fourth, I don’t have a dog.”
Now we know where they all get it from.
I Cooked! (and everyone lived to tell about it)
In the meantime, read this
I feel like one of the subjects on the show Hoarders who can’t sell their old house because it’s filled to the brim with clutter. Still need to vacate Blogger. Will make every effort to flesh out the site. And come up with another way to say “flesh out” that doesn’t sound so… grotesque. In the meantime, read this post from my current home to get a sense of why I’ve created this site.
Up and out and on to better things!
Kerbey v. Kirby
I’ve always been enamored (though never fully committed in belief) with the idea of astrology and personality. How the planets swirled and stars aligned the day each of us were born. Whether our first few months were filled with falling leaves or rising temperatures- and the corresponding dips and swells in human mood and activity that defined the world of our infancy.
September just feels cerebral.
And even though the ritual in my family is to head north for the autumn- back to school, back to Austin and all things burnt orange, I would argue that like me, Houston is a September child.
The four-year summer of my life was filled with late nights at Kerbey Lane Cafe, weekends on the river, wiener dog races in Buda. The highlights of the year were things like ACL Festival, SXSW. Even with its quiet moments Austin is never without song- it had a way of making work never feel quite like work. Life was one big trip to Mozart’s or Spider House, serving both study-time and fun, coffee and alcohol. An eternal rabbit hole in the tightly-woven plans of the ambitious.
In Houston I start my days on Kirby Drive, passing Armadillo Palace on my way in to work- the last standing monolith of quirkier times. I listen to Roula and Ryan on 104 instead of music. I attend Social Media Breakfasts and HiMA conferences. Houston is all about words and action and putting to use the whiley artistic impulses of hotter times. There’s creativity, but it’s captured.
Museum District Day is this Saturday, my birthday. A classic Houston affair. It’s artsy and fun but in a way that pushes stale hot air and brushes leaves off the trees. Houston has the feel of a beginning-of-the-year assignment in elementary school that makes you thoughtful. Hopeful.
Sometimes I think I’d love to go back to the wonderland of Willie Nelson and shopping on South Congress in the middle of weekday afternoons, but as September settles in and my 24th birthday pulls near, I can feel that the Houston/Austin competition is really more of a battle of my younger and older self. Of how I’d like to live and who I’d like to become, and when I stop fighting it I realize that September is good for me.
Into the Ether From Whence He Came
Remember in this blog post how I talked about the idea that the creation of art has a lot to do with this need and struggle to bring something ethereal into physical existence?
Two days later I saw this interview and for the first time since I first heard his music, witnessed the years of genius and absurdity, the continuous media spectacle, the dubious facts and speculations surround his death- I found myself in awe of Michael Jackson.
Minute 8:10 through 8:55.
Oprah: “Most of us spend our lives trying to figure out what the purpose of our being here is. What do you think yours is?”
Michael Jackson: “My purpose? Oh boy… I think to give in the best way I can through song and through dance and through music. I am committed to my art. I believe that all art has as its ultimate goal the union between the material and the spiritual, the human and the divine. I believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art and I feel I was chosen as an instrument to give music and love and harmony to the world.”
Absolutely fascinating.
Say a lot about him, but the man got it. He got it. Art is about the struggle to pull down to earth a piece of divinity. Maybe it explains a little bit why those with the best view of it seem the strangest in a world with a distinctly horizontal perspective.
Faux Fall
Is your name Jennifer? Do you hate cake? Let’s Talk.
This Friday, September 25 all three locations of Dessert Gallery are giving away a FREE slice of Jennifer’s Birthday Cake to anyone named Jennifer, in celebration of the owner’s daughter’s birthday (who by this time you should have figured out is named Jennifer). Found out about this through a great blog called Cheap Eats in Houston.
I am not named Jennifer. If the turnaround time on a legal name change was less than 24 hours, I would attempt it. If you are a Jennifer who doesn’t like cake and has about 20 minutes to spare on Friday, let me know, I’m sure we can work something out.
I should also note that if you are, we can never, ever be friends.
Who doesn’t like cake?
See Related: Bacon.
Writer’s Block
It happens when you most expect it.
See Me For The Nerd That I Am
If I could bring one thing back from the 90s it would be Natural Wonders.
Yes, the store at the West Oaks Mall (and many others) that sold things like rainsticks, adopt-a-whale packets and compilation CDs of instrumental and world music.
One Year Ago Today
Why I ‘d Like to be a Photographer
I have a ritual.
Kerbey v. Kirby
I’ve always been enamored (though never fully committed in belief) with the idea of astrology and personality. How the planets swirled and stars aligned the day each of us were born. Whether our first few months were filled with falling leaves or rising temperatures- and the corresponding dips and swells in human mood and activity that defined the world of our infancy.
September just feels cerebral.
And even though the ritual in my family is to head north for the autumn- back to school, back to Austin and all things burnt orange, I would argue that like me, Houston is a September child.
The four-year summer of my life was filled with late nights at Kerbey Lane Cafe, weekends on the river, wiener dog races in Buda. The highlights of the year were things like ACL Festival, SXSW. Even with its quiet moments Austin is never without song- it had a way of making work never feel quite like work. Life was one big trip to Mozart’s or Spider House, serving both study-time and fun, coffee and alcohol. An eternal rabbit hole in the tightly-woven plans of the ambitious.
In Houston I start my days on Kirby Drive, passing Armadillo Palace on my way in to work- the last standing monolith of quirkier times. I listen to Roula and Ryan on 104 instead of music. I attend Social Media Breakfasts and HiMA conferences. Houston is all about words and action and putting to use the whiley artistic impulses of hotter times. There’s creativity, but it’s captured.
Museum District Day is this Saturday, my birthday. A classic Houston affair. It’s artsy and fun but in a way that pushes stale hot air and brushes leaves off the trees. Houston has the feel of a beginning-of-the-year assignment in elementary school that makes you thoughtful. Hopeful.
Sometimes I think I’d love to go back to the wonderland of Willie Nelson and shopping on South Congress in the middle of weekday afternoons, but as September settles in and my 24th birthday pulls near, I can feel that the Houston/Austin competition is really more of a battle of my younger and older self. Of how I’d like to live and who I’d like to become, and when I stop fighting it I realize that September is good for me.
Jumped the Shark

1. Futura is out. It’s been years since my fellow advertising students and I (and most of my creative teachers) used it in every imaginable scenario, presentation, ad we could get our hands on, but now that IKEA has finally dumped it I think it’s safe to call a time of death. Currently, Helvetica and Verdana are having their day in the sun. Serif is making a comeback in a small way- we aren’t starting every new weblog with Courier anymore (or sending out my resume in Baskerville) but sleek is out, and the more amorphous half-serif style similar to that in “Keep Calm” posters (but with a little more serif to it) is what I think you can expect next.
Pecans are the new thing to be covered in chocolate. Brands like Max Brenner have begun carrying high-end products with down-to-earth pecans at their center.
MythBusters: The Myth of the Ubiquitous Dessert Gallery
Up until about two days ago I thought Dessert Gallery was EVERYWHERE.
