Brooklyn Girl

argh

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:06:42 -0500

It’s one thing when your best friend, the one you live with for years after college, the one who you introduce to everyone by saying “this is my best friend _______” or when you tell stories about her you say “my best friend _______” as if her first name is four words long, who you think of as your sister but better because you chose each other… it’s one thing when she starts hanging out with your ex-boyfriend and you can’t breathe because the three of you all work together and you and she are still living together and sure enough she dates him and it’s a mess and you both move out and move on.

It’s another thing when a few years later she writes a memoir about her life and sends you an email that several chapters deal with your friendship and she changed your name and though she’s never said it in person, or even on the phone, now in this email she says “sorry” and also she’s turning in the manuscript to the publisher in a week.

It’s another thing when the book comes out and gets great reviews and mentioned in Oprah’s magazine and one of the Oprah book club questions is about you (and you even hate the pseudonym she chose for you).

It’s another thing when she organizes reunions and shows so she can sell her books in the lobby afterwards, this memoir which you know she got a six figure advance for.

But it’s this one last thing that sticks in your craw, festering like last night’s rotten popcorn kernels jammed in your back teeth: you have written her two emails, asking her to donate to this, and she doesn’t reply and she doesn’t donate and you just want to tell her to fuck off, a million times over, to please fuck off forever and ever amen.

Reminds me of old graffiti from a restaurant where I used to...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:47:04 -0500

Reminds me of old graffiti from a restaurant where I used to work: ”To the world you are one, but to one you are the world.” Underneath it someone wrote “Grow the fuck up.” This is better.

(via alanajoy)

I am running a half marathon to raise money for the Leukemia...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:39:02 -0500

I am running a half marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. I’m doing it with my friend Basia, who was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago. This is the blog I’m keeping of my training. I’d love your support, tumblr community.

Also! In the next month or so I’ll be holding an online raffle. Past donors will be retroactively entered (every $25 will be a raffle entry) and there should be some cool prizes. Looks like some “Bored To Death” shwag, “30 Rock” stuff, Upright CItizens Brigade tickets and shirts, and some bigger and better prizes TBA.

tamiintraining:

FALL (-ing in love with New York)

I ran on Sunday through my neighborhood with Tulip. No walking this time, just 37 minutes of running. Progress! Our group Saturday runs are no longer in Prospect Park — it’s our distance run, and our distances now take us across the Brooklyn Bridge and into the city. I realized that I missed it, so today I ran around Prospect Park (3.35 miles) for my solo run and it was great. The gorgeous fall colors, the gazebo, the pond. So many beautiful distractions. I feel so lucky that I get to live here, so grateful that this training process has helped me experience autumn here more fully.

I love this time of year, but I only discovered that two years ago. That’s when I moved to New York after nearly a lifetime in Chicago and six years in Los Angeles that might as well have been a lifetime. In Chicago the transition from summer to winter is swift and brutal. You wake up one day to discover the leaves have changed, and the next week the branches are bare, as everyone braces for the cruel winter that lasts at least six months. In LA it’s always palm trees and mud slides, the Santa Ana winds being the one signifier of change — and the Santa Anas are spooky, the air feels still and thinned out, then a gust of heat that rattles everyone’s equilibrium. People walk around dazed and angry, and every once in awhile someone will talk of how the Santa Anas shake up the ions in the atmosphere, and like everyone else in LA I was comforted by pseudoscience psychobabble. It’s reassuring, like when you drop your laptop in the toilet and then you hear that mercury is in retrograde, no wonder you’re having problems with mechanical items. Or the time I wanted to punch a lady in the face for placing her sunglasses on the folding chair next to her at a crowded meeting. How dare she take up a needed chair? As I clenched my fists and hunched my shoulders, glaring four letter epitaphs into the back of her head I remembered I had started Zoloft a week earlier and it was maybe making my thoughts a touch violent. I got off the prescription that night. It took me six years to leave L.A.

As soon as I came to New York I knew I was home. When people asked me how I was doing, I’d rhapsodize about how well my dog was adjusting, how much he loved Brooklyn. Bart, a ten year old Husky/Shepard mix, loved all the people and dogs everywhere, how everyone was so friendly, all the smells on garbage day. He loved the sense of community, how he could go into the mom & pop stores with me, the change in seasons. It only took me four months to realize I was talking about myself. Except for the part about garbage day.

*photo of Prospect Park from the beautiful photography blog of jake dobkin

BORED TO DEATH MEET-UP! Tonight “Bored To Death”...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:40:54 -0500

BORED TO DEATH MEET-UP!

Tonight “Bored To Death” creator Jonathan Ames is meeting with and treating fans of the show to a drink on him from 9:30 to 10:00 at Sample Bar in Brooklyn. I’ll be there as well as fellow writer Martin Gero and it should be a good time. Sample bar is located at 152 Smith Street in Brooklyn, right by the Bergen stop on the F/G train.

It’s a small, intimate bar and Jonathan’s a great guy. Hope to see y’all there.

I remember reading a story about this cat circus when it did a...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:09:03 -0500

I remember reading a story about this cat circus when it did a run in New York a few years ago. My favorite line was when Yuri said he couldn’t always get the cats to do tricks on command because, after all, they’re still cats.

wherescoachbombay:

Yuri Kuklachev Cat Theater: Depending on how much I can save while living at home I am hoping to take the Transiberian Railway from China to Moscow to volunteer in Eastern Europe for a while. Now, after watching Abed’s post, I MUST GO TO MOSCOW. I will work countless hours of overtime to see the Yuri Kuklachev Cat Theater. BUCKET LIST.

cakeface: Nation’s Girlfriends Unveil New Economic Plan: ‘Let’s...

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:40:00 -0400

cakeface:

Nation’s Girlfriends Unveil New Economic Plan: ‘Let’s Move In Together’ (via TheOnion)

I love this.

"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine. Which is why i guess everyone died of..."

Sun, 17 May 2009 23:00:52 -0400

“Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine. Which is why i guess everyone died of tuberculosis.”

- Jack Handey (via nudawn)

It’s still hard for me to believe that Jack Handey is a real person. That’s the name of the SNL writer who wrote “Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey.” Such a happy confluence of events, to have that name and those one-liners.

Here’s one of my Jack Handey favorites:

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?

We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”

An Update

Sun, 17 May 2009 17:51:00 -0400

I just got back from ten days in L.A. I was there for interviews and meetings, and an audition managed to sneak on to my itinerary as well, but most of my time was spent in my rental car driving from the east side to the west, back east, back west, back east. I drove the following highways: the 2, 5, 10, 101, 105, 110, 134, and the 405. Things that kept me sane: a working GPS, great podcasts (Never Not Funny, Adam Corolla, Comedy and Everything Else, Planet Money), my awesome friends, doing shows (5), hiking in Griffith Park, and Pure Iced Blendeds. I had to stay two more days than I’d originally planned, and there were a few days there when I felt like I’d never make it back to Brooklyn. I’m so glad to be home.

I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I might be moving back west, I might be staying right where I am. I might be working on a new show, or coming up with my own show, or writing a movie, or short stories, or I have no idea. I don’t even know what I want to happen. I’ve never felt so comfortable being so uncertain, and it’s been incredibly liberating. I really enjoyed every interview (except for one) and the audition* and I just know in my heart that whatever happens will be for the best. Some decisions are out of my control but what really matters are the thousand small decisions I make on a daily basis.

No matter what, I’m thrilled to be home. What’s home for now, at least.

*they called my manager to “put a pin” in me. That means they’re interested in a couple of us for the role, and they’re checking on our availability for those dates. Very preliminary, but it feels great to know that I did a good enough job to still be in consideration. And now it’s just another decision that’s out of my control.

Today's News

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:10:09 -0400

Good News: I was asked to audition for a new, really funny show on HBO. My manager didn’t submit me, they requested me specifically.

Bad News: The part requires nudity.

Not News: Not gonna do it.

I may be in a terrible mood.

Sun, 03 May 2009 23:03:35 -0400

Just saw a commercial for “In Plain Sight” on USA. This was the annoying/lazy joke they highlighted that demonstrates why I’ll never watch this fucking show.

Guy star: I feel like I’m in a movie.

Lady star: Let me guess, “Clueless”?

Guy star: I was going to say “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Technically, sure “The Taming of the Shrew” was a movie — it was the movie version of the SHAKESPEARE PLAY. So the reason that joke doesn’t quite work is because it’s bent as hell, and the writers should have worked harder to find a different movie, or a different set-up altogether. Aaaarfghrlfrr.

Photo taken with a real camera, not my Mac’s Photobooth.

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:57:00 -0400

Photo taken with a real camera, not my Mac’s Photobooth.

Literally licking his lips.

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:53:00 -0400

Literally licking his lips.

Someone is enjoying a raw beef bone.

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:52:00 -0400

Someone is enjoying a raw beef bone.

I find this inspiring, heartbreaking, lovely, sad, wonderful....

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:40:03 -0400

I find this inspiring, heartbreaking, lovely, sad, wonderful. The redeeming power of art and passion. And also Simon Cowell.

Seriously, this made me tear up more than that video of the elephant petting the dog.

I got to see this butterfly when I was in Costa Rica a few years...

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:30:33 -0400

I got to see this butterfly when I was in Costa Rica a few years ago. The butterfly garden was an amazing experience. I was wearing orange (by chance) and butterflies kept landing on me. I felt like Snow White.

allcreatures:

Butterflies by Edwin Dalorzo

thewordunheard: This happened today. We walked eight miles for...

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:43:11 -0400

thewordunheard:

This happened today.

We walked eight miles for it, so we didn’t feel that guilty.

(photo via)

Five Guys! I had a Little Hamburger there today too, but only walked 4 miles for it. So no cheese.

Today's Discovery

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:05:31 -0400

How many peanut butter brownies are too many?

Answer: Three.

I feel sick.

Having a CRAZY day at work.

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:24:30 -0400

But crazy in a really, really good way.

Getting to watch and meet so many people I admire.

My palms are sweating.

Remembering to breathe.

I am a very lucky girl.

tesslynch: Spring: Coming Soon Yup. But first, March coming in...

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:56:30 -0500

tesslynch:

Spring: Coming Soon

Yup. But first, March coming in like a lion …

tien: BKgirl, Steam tunnels?! Underneath Rockefeller...

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:13:00 -0500

tien:

BKgirl,

Steam tunnels?! Underneath Rockefeller Cathedral?! Please do tell…

tien

What I remember: Summer nights in the mid-90’s, led by a soccer playing upperclassman and some of his friends, somehow getting into Rockefeller (a back door? an unlocked window?). It’s fuzzy — I was such a good girl, and panicked by the illegality of it all, sure that the University Police would catch us — but those guys knew how to get underground. Once there it was all flashlights and adventuring. I never did any research about it, didn’t even really understand what the tunnels were for, I was just blindly following cute boys. Here’s what I found out about it online:

“Legend tells of a dank, labyrinthine network of tunnels running underneath the Midway, linking the Law School and Burton-Judson to the campus’s north side. It’s true. Tunnels containing steam pipes connect the quads to the University steam plant at 61st and Blackstone, extending west to the Hospitals and north to Pierce Hall at 55th and University. TheMagazine’s “Chicagophile” cartoonist Jessica Abel, AB’91, toured the underground system with steam plant assistant manager Mike DeSoto and recorded her journey in the April/99 issue, in which DeSoto described finding graffiti, beer bottles, and even students inside the tunnels. Since then, DeSoto says, the University has secured the entranceways, adding gates and welded bars. “There was a time when it was very common to see someone wandering in the tunnels in the middle of the night,” he says. “We’d call security, and they’d take the students back to their dorms. But to my knowledge there have been no new student intruders in quite some time.”

Some alumni had heard that the tunnels were closed in the 1960s because a female student was murdered there. “I have no knowledge of any murders,” DeSoto says, “nor have we ever found any bodies.” The lack of newspaper stories about steam-tunnel murders on the Midway further suggests that this tale is simply another urban legend.”