Friday, December 10, 2010

Visitor

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Been awhile since I posted any of these. Here are some relatively recent ones. Click images to enlarge / click here to view all.













Image of the Day

. Tilda Swinton photographed by Sølve Sundsbø, for a portfolio of actors from the year's best movies, in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine. Slideshow here / video here.

I WANT YOU wants you

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Our friends at the Seattle-based design studio Dumb Eyes have set up a Kickstarter account to help fund their magazine I WANT YOU. In case you don't remember it or never knew it, I WANT YOU comes out roughly twice a year and features up-and-coming artists, designers, photographers, and creative people from all over the world. If you can find it in your heart or your wallet (I realize I am channeling Sonny from the F train right now) to give as little as $1 or as much as you can muster, it will help them publish their next issue. The last one came with a 7" by Shabazz Palaces so god knows what they have in store for the next. They're getting pretty close to their $2000 goal so every little bit counts – click here to help fund the next issue of I WANT YOU.

Public Listening

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This trailer doesn't come close to doing it justice, but two nights ago we watched Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese's HBO documentary on Fran Lebowitz, and it's the best thing I've seen on TV in quite awhile.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Best Foot Forward

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LL Bean knit wool slipper socks, $29.95.

I actually think they look kind of cool when Em wears them around the house with high-cuffed jeans. Warm and good for much-needed couch time.

6:18 AM

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Band of Horses "The First Song"
from Everything All The Time (
Sub Pop, 2006)


This coming Friday, December 10, Ben Bridwell and members of Band of Horses will play a show at the Pour House in Charleston, SC, with Holopaw opening. Proceeds benefit the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation. If you're anywhere remotely nearby, get your tickets here.

(Photo: Seattle from our apartment, before the sun came up, Monday morning)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Our Friends

and Emily

Before we resume
our somewhat regular posting habits, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has commented, emailed, called, or spoken with us in person about Littlejeans. He has been with us for over ten years and dealing with his absence is extremely difficult – but your kind words have meant so much and are making it a far less lonely experience.

In posting "Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans" over the past few years, we hoped to bring a bit of the Jeans greatness to our friends, near and far, and to reflect on the joy that living with little animals (or, um, medium-sized animals) can bring to all of our lives. We thank you for all of the love and attention for our favorite buddy, and we know that if Jeans were here, he would want to thank you himself in his own special ways. Thank you.

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Our Friend, Mr. Littlejeans

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After battling lung cancer for over two years I am sad to report that Mr. Littlejeans died last night. He had been getting around just fine and being his usual weird and lovable self but over the past several days his condition quickly worsened, and he was having a hard time moving much without triggering uncontrollable coughing spells, leaving him completely exhausted. Saturday night he slept, as he always has, on Emily's pillow, hugging her head. When I got up in the morning, he woke up as he always does and meowed at me – he always seemed so excited to get up in the morning and follow me around the apartment. He couldn't do that yesterday – we knew things were getting worse and discussed the possibility of having him put down so as not to prolong his suffering. Jeans was a very dignified cat and he would not have wanted to lose control of himself or become someone different because of his sickness. In the end we didn't have to do that – he died on his own. We are thankful that he went quickly without much suffering.

I know a lot of people might not understand this about a cat, but our friends, and friends of the blog, know what a difficult loss this is for us. Jeans has been with us through everything.

We got him in 1999 not long after we moved to New York. Emily had started law school and was spending long hours studying in our dark Hell's Kitchen apartment, and we thought a cat would be a nice companion. We could not have been more right about that.

He was born in the Bronx and when he was a kitten, his first owner died. The body was not discovered for a week or so, at which time it was removed – but Jeans was left there alone, to fend for himself. A week later, someone heard him meowing behind the door and got the super to let her in.

He ended up at an animal shelter down the street from us on 9th Avenue. He was sick when we got him but he recovered quickly. He never did get over the stomach problems we think were formed from his early life in the Bx (no vet ever figured out why he continued to gain weight, even on the diet food prescribed to him).

Without going into every last detail of his life I will just say that Jeans always seemed to consider himself an equal – he actively wanted to be around us as much as possible and we were always glad he was. He moved with us from Hell's Kitchen to Carroll Gardens (shaking all over as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in a cab); four years later he moved with us to Fort Greene, where he experienced the wilds of our small backyard. Four years after that, he sat between my brother and me in his favorite "Smile Face" box as we drove a moving truck across the country to Seattle.

We have just been through so much with him, it is hard to imagine life without him now. I know that sounds dramatic and I know everything will get back to normal, but for now we are just sad that our friend is gone.

More pictures of the Jeans here.