1901, Phoenix.

Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.

"No; listen, Jake. If I handled both our expenses, would you go to South America with me?"

"Why me?"

"You can talk Spanish. And it would be more fun with two of us."

"No," I said, "I like this town and I go to Spain in the summertime."

"All my life I've wanted to go on a trip like that," Cohn said. He sat down. "I'll be too old before I can ever do it."

"Don't be a fool," I said. "You can go anywhere you want. You've got plenty of money."

"I know. But I can't get started."

"Cheer up," I said. "All countries look just like the moving pictures."

But I felt sorry for him. He had it badly.

"I can't stand to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it."

"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except the bull-fighters."

......

"Listen, Jake," he leaned forward on the bar. "Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you've lived nearly half the time you have to live already?"

"Yes, every once in a while."

"Do you know that in about thirty-five years more we'll be dead?"

"What the hell, Robert," I said. "What the hell."

"I'm serious."

"It's one thing I don't worry about," I said.

"You ought to."

"I've had plenty to worry about one time or other. I'm through worrying."

"Well, I want to go to South America."

"Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that."

"But you've never been to South America."

"South America hell! If you went there the way you feel now it would be exactly the same. This is a good town. Why don't you start living your life in Paris?"

"I'm sick of Paris, and I'm sick of the Quarter."

"Stay away from the Quarter. Cruise around by yourself and see what happens to you."

"Nothing happens to me. I walked alone all one night and nothing happened except a bicycle cop stopped me and asked to see my papers."

"Wasn't the town nice at night?"

"I don't care for Paris."

So there you were. I was sorry for him, but it was not a thing you could do anything about, because right away you ran up against two stubbornnesses: South America could fix it and he did not like Paris. He got the first idea out of a book, and I suppose the second came out of a book too.

Annnnnd Beyonce Wins At Life. Plus Other Tidbits To Catch Up With.

Image 1 (via OurBlogofLove) indicates my newfound, pure and absolute love for pugs. I have never in my life been the kind of person who ooohs and ahhhhs over adorable animals (...only well-dressed children), but lately their wrinkled faces have made me die from cuteness.

Image 2 indicates my obsession with the really cool, endlessly awesome to click through site: Springwise

Portland. (Biscuits).

Texas. (A well-written article on the execution of an innocent man in Texas. Beyond moving. Worth the read).

In his opinion, Supreme Court Justice Scalia declared that, in the modern judicial system, there has not been “a single case—not one—in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.”

When in Dallas. (Coconut custard for true lovers of coconut).

The scariest, most racist posters I've ever seen - held at the 9/12 protest.

On racist motivation behind the 9/12 protests: "I saw more black people at an 11am screening of Julie & Julia." - Jimmy Carter impersonation on SNL

The blogs are all a twitter about NYFW (New York Fashion Week, duh). And I'm loving every tweet of it.

I think it's okay to be so completely over the Louis Vuition bags and still have a life goal to go to a fashion week in NYC or Milan or Paris, even just to hang around and soak up the Marc Jacobs, Vena Cava, Zac Posen, Marchesa, Chloe, Proenza Schouler, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Costello Tagliapietra...

Yay for SAFRA (Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibilty Act) passing in the House! Now on to the Senate...

I spent a day in D.C. trying to get college students to write letters to their representatives about this. My line was, "Hey, do you think college should be more affordable?" All the college students that ever stopped to talk to me were minorities. Truth.

Check out: Students Over Banks.

Finished The Road in two nights. Truly impossible to put down, it just flows.

(Not to be confused with On the Road. Which I keep doing).

Black, Pete Yorn.

Tricky, Run-DMC.

Ate at Sage. Yum! Up next: I really want to eat at Big Truck Tacos.

Life lesson: Be responsive.

All my love across the miles.

Urban Planning.

So excited about MAPS 3! Oklahoma City is exciting, because there's so much potential.

Tom Coburn tried to cut funding for making cities more walkable/bikeable. What a horrible person. Ugh! Thank goodness it was defeated.

Example:

T4AmericaFollow up with your Senators RT @BikeWalk: Thank/Spank Your Congress Member for their vote on the Coburn Amendment Wed. http://bit.ly/QNC5W

And I am learning so much right now, all because of this.

Goals in life:

1. Never let another Moore, OK I-35 view happen again.

2. Avoid living in huge, car-dependent cities at all costs. (cough, Texas, cough).

3. Live someplace I can walk/ride my bike to work every day.

Gettin' Out Dreams.

Though There Are A Lot Of Petitions/Urban Outfitters Campaigning To Save It: My Stockpile Of Polaroid Film Expired September 1st. Thus, A Tribute:

I have the best friends.

And will eternally shake it like a...

A Smorgasbord of Inspiration.

(a) Time is flying. Casey Callahan will be acting in an EMHS production of The Crucible! (I always knew she was a witch...)

(b)/(c) "Not the stuff of poetry, but of prose." I've read every Jackie Kennedy biography there is, so I've always had a morbid fascination with the lore of the Kennedy family - but getting legislation to move on issues like health care and immigration is truly heroic and makes me proud of the Democratic Party.

(d) JANE JACOBS: queen of urban planning and my new hero thanks to The Life and Death of Great American Cities.

(e) Garance Dore image. I wanna move to Holland and ride bikes.

"You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference."

– Steve Jobs

Forgot how breathtaking these songs can be. And timely:

And on the subject of Disney Princesses: Tiana, the first black Disney princess.

Controversy abounds, but personally I think the 1920s New Orleans setting + pre-Pixar animation + voodoo is interesting and brilliant.

And on the subject of music:

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, listen to both Jack White's version and Chris Thile's version.

Charging Fort Wagoner, Glory soundtrack. It will make you go that extra mile...or twelve.

Endless Shovel, Rogue Wave. On constant repeat.

Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Damn this album's good.

A new teaching method for English teachers...

Fascinating.

On the one hand, enough with the archaic booklists: reading should be freeing and personal and adventurous and enjoyable.

On the other hand, can you imagine going through school and not reading To Kill A Mockingbird!?! Eeeps.

“If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli.”

- Jay-Z