Corporate Identity

Corporate Identity, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

Here are my new ID’s. They get me into special places like the bathroom. I am super stoked about that. I look like I eat puppy souls for a living in my id photos.

I think that photocopying will eventually make me barren. Just a hunch I have. My new job places me right next to Millennium Park, which will be lovely once Chicago stops being an abusive husband. He beats me every time I burn the eggs. I make him be so cold to me because I am just so careless. But, then there are days where Chicago tells me I am pretty and I like living here.

Today was “Bring your children to work day” and there were lots of giggling kids running up and down the office. Megan said she saw a father and son eating ice cream walking in the loop. That’s super cute. Too bad massive amounts of photocopying made my womb shrivel up and die today.




I also saw Bright Eyes this Tuesday. The whole band wore white and there were flowers everywhere. I cried. It was pretty. My mom says I am sensitive.

PS - I have changed the Bright Eyes video on this post like three times. God I love Youtube.

Monster Plant

Monster Plant, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

Sports Hero.

Shuffleboard, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

Usually when I drink it’s like playing the lottery. You never know what’s going to happen. The Pyramids of Egypt could be in my cards. You just never know. When I was in Madison I discovered that you can definitely bet on my athletic prowess when I drink. I am a sports hero.
Any sport that one can play while drinking beer, I am amazing at. I am not trying to brag here, I am just stating the facts. The cold steel plated facts. Like a dart.

I destroyed in darts. I shuffled with elegance. (Thanks to Jessica's added grace, and no thanks to the art school dudes who kept changing the rules.) And bowling the other night in Lincoln Square proved that PBR licenses me with the eerie ability to make spares and strikes with such ease that other lanes were taking notice.

All of this being said I am looking for a worthy foe to shuffle with.
http://www.wellingtonstavern.com/events.html

You watch Battlestar Galactica? You don't? You're an idiot.

So, I am into Season 2.5 of the Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica. What the hell man? These writers are so good. Sooooo good.

And why is Starbuck so cool?

Hungarian Wine and Bread Dumplings

It was the summer of 2004. Ashley Simpson came out with her first single. I studied in Prague.

I watched Daisies to prepare myself and I guess it was spot on. At one point we did stop in a field and made wreaths of flowers. Those that know me also know that besides reading Kafka and Kundera I cried a lot. I missed my then boyfriend.

Crying fits aside, I got to have a lot of madcap adventures gallavanting throughout Europe. I even saw the Queen of England. And what.

I also befriended two particular people while studying. One being a 4'11" blonde version of my twin sister. Way to go Shannon. And the other was the only other person besides myself in a committed relationship who stayed that way while in Europa. The three of us had lots of drunken adventures involving such props as knives, castles, and absinthe.



For the first time since this trip, we will all be meeting up. This holy reunion will take place in Madison, Wisconsin. I think cheese and booze will play a large part in whatever happens.

PS - I just watched Scoop and it was awesome. Scarlett's character in it was hillarious.

Megan and Zach Braff

I found this on Youtube today. Don't ask me why. There are a lot of striking similarities between Megan and Dawn.

Below - Megan lectures Pugsley on his methane emissions.

Meg and Pug have a moment, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

You've Gone Away Enough

So, about two weeks ago Megan, Erin, and I were at Metropolis. We were trying to slowly kill ourselves with baked goods and caffeine. Megan and Erin played a really pessimistic game of scrabble. It was during this game that I stole Erin's iPod. This song by Mirah came on her iPod shuffle. God Bless the shuffle. I had never heard this song before and man. It is perfect. So perfect for this time.



You've Gone Away Enough

if the light takes you in will you know where you've been all this time
at the edge of a cliff you could almost just slip down the side
when there's so much to do don't you wish you could make up your mind?
but it know it's elusive, it grows and it burns you inside


ooooooooo...

with my eyes mostly closed like a person who knows how to drown
i'll squint at the sun and my shoulders will pray for the ground
let's throw something over, imagine it's us falling down
and thinking of death we will watch without making a sound

ooooooooo...

but it's just the way you are you don't have to be afraid
the way you look at the stars and how you think that they were made
the motion will never stop turning the night into the day
you've gone away enough when will you decide to stay

my trouble with everything always is nothing's just right
just to figure out nothing could keep you awake half the night
not to know what you want is a terrible thing you should fight
you just sift for the face of the dark while you wait for the light

ooooooooo...

Moss on Oak

IMG_3692.JPG, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

I'm Kind of Excited.

BrightEyes_01.jpg, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

I'm kind of excited, dudes. Bright Eyes is coming out with a new record - Cassadaga. Nevermind that Conor is a total dreamboat. He has eyes like a puppy and sounds like a goat. Sigh. Here is a sampling of his new lyrical genius.

Four Winds.

Your class, your cash, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
His body's decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where

A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you learn them all together you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen the sun

Cast all the school and meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes

And it's the song of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks

Well, I went back, I rent a Cadillac, a company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Casa David to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"

And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
With four winds, levelling the pines

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't compete with all that outer space
She caves, she caves, she caves, she caves

They have that song and one called "No One would Riot for Less" on the Bright Eyes website. I am seeing the Akron Family show at the Empty Bottle tonight. But, my sister is taking FOREVER to get ready.

So, I will just listen to these two songs over and over. Think about going to New Orleans for their show in May. Eyes like a puppy. I got Blood Brothers tickets today. Thrashing about is on the not to distant horizon.

And finally, I want elaborate comments at the bottom of my flower posts. Write a short story, a poem, or a manifesto. Things like Mein Kempf or Leaves of Grass, but in your own words.

Japanese Magnolias

Japanese Magnolias, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.

iPod R.I.P.

Erin is back!, originally uploaded by Parvati the Witch.

I recieved my iPod in May 2005 as a Graduation gift from my dad. It was a 30 GB iPhoto. On the back my brother had it inscribed with this "Shannon Morley - Awesomeness From on High" He originally wanted to write Immovable Object on mine and Irresistable Force on Megan's. I thought that calling me Immovable Object was just another fat joke so Awesomeness it was. I digress. My iPod died and this old picture does a good job of showing off my sad face. I took it to the Apple store and they said there was nothing they could do for my little guy. I looked into the clerk's eyes, "Nothing?" "Nothing," he replied.

Bummer.



In other news - I love dresses! I wish I had a new dress everyday. I would wake up and one would just magically appear hanging all fancifull on the outside of my closet with a bow around it. Like in Alfonso Cuaron's A Little Princess.

What About the Lost Girls?

Click on the picture above. Now, look closely at her left leg. May God bless Tori Amos and the menstrual blood running down her leg. God bless her.

Tori instantly became a hero of mine when I first discovered her. It is comforting that heroes still exist. Not only does she continue to create provocative and hopeful music ranging in topic from masturbation, road trips, to God; she had the courage to do something about her fans’ reaction to that music. http://www.rainn.org/
Her sexually charged and Christian-imagery infused music provided a much-needed outlet for the repressive corridors in my all-girls Catholic high school. She helped to take the shame and promise of eternal damnation out of sexual expression. This was nice to have.

This picture got me thinking about some things. I have had lots of heated debates in the past few weeks about how to address the various woes in New Orleans. Of course, I think that if there is no land to stand on then what is the point of fighting the rest. We need to start aggressively fixing what the American government did to our coasts. Check my sister’s Blog Red Beans and Lice to learn more.

As for the out of control violence and rampant stupidity that plagues the city streets not just in New Orleans, but also all across America. I think we are forgetting a key demographic. We keep talking about the gun toting, sexually aggressive Lost Boys. They need fathers. They need guidance. I agree with that. But, you know what they need even more? They need their female peers to tell them to “Fuck off.” It is time to save the Lost Girls.

A curious demonstration of female power recently took place in Colombia:
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283923&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/

But, I don’t think a sex strike is the only way to go.

To quote a petition from Planned Parenthood, “One billion dollars has been wasted on abstinence-only education, which denies young people real information about how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including AIDS.”

It is time to face head-on with the realities of the world we live in. Sex is a really cheap form of entertainment and when you don’t buy condoms, its supa cheap. Also when you don’t have a family that cares about you, lots of girls think, why don’t I just make my own? Babies are easy to make and mine will love me unconditionally. And one final thing that is true of every person in love – the belief that they can change him and their love will last forever. It is easy to get duped by the smooth talking gentleman, at any age.

We have established that we aren’t going to stop people from doing the horizontal tango. It is not going to happen, never could, and we never will. So lets stop investing billions of dollars in unicorns and fairies.

If you honestly want to fix the issues of poverty and violence - make birth control, emergency contraception, and sex education more readily available to the lost girls. Lets show the lost girls they have more to offer the world than their ability to reproduce. Invest in your local Planned Parenthood. And for the love of women not getting cervical cancer, support legislation, which makes the new vaccine against HPV, Gardasil, a mandatory vaccine for young girls. I am just salty that there are parents out there who think cervical cancer is a good lesson learned against pre-marital sex.

For those of you that think sexually transmitted infections only happen to promiscuous bad people, consider this, “By age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV infection. About 6.2 million Americans get a new genital HPV infection each year.” According to this statistic, eighty percent of American women are sluts.

Let us lift the veil from our eyes. Let us live in this world. Let us enjoy one of the greatest gifts ever to be given from on high responsibly and without shame. Let us give girls more options than abstinence or parenthood.

Sign these petitions:
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/keroackpetition2/
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/prevention_first2

Donate to your local Planned Parenthood!
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/donate.htm

Party till you puke Purple, Green, and Gold

Warren Easton Marchers, originally uploaded by Juxtaposedface.


Boobs, beer, and maybe some Blow are things that come to mind when outsiders think of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. And they would not be wrong in their assessment of my fair city’s last brew-ha before the season of Lent. There is plenty of Hedonism and Decadence to be had. But, Mardi Gras is not just a time to roll out the puke and piss soaked carpet of Party for tourists. It is, like any holiday, a time for kids.

Hear me out. Mardi Gras in many ways, is like Christmas or Halloween. In classrooms all across Louisiana you get to eat King Cake every Friday afternoon from the Epiphany till Mardi Gras. Kids and teachers alike fell victim to airway blockage when our Lord and savior appeared in the form of a plastic baby Jesus. When parade week literally rolls into town, families converge upon Veterans Highway or St. Charles Avenue. They lay out tarps and blankets staking a claim on coveted Neutral Ground land. People set up grills, kegs, couches, tents, and tow along ice chests full of beer, cokes, and insanely delectable food.



Mardi Gras day meant eating cold Popeye’s chicken all day long and sneaking beer. It meant "Iko Iko" by the Dixie Cups and Professor Longhair on the radio. It meant dressing up in costumes. It meant threateningly and pleadingly shouting, “Throw me something mister!” from atop a Mardi Gras ladder that caused splinters and threatened to topple every time you reached too far for a bead. It meant wrestling with other kids for prized beads, cups, stuffed animals and mastering your Doubloon stomp. It meant putting frilly panties and garters over your pants, spraying passer-bys with silly string, and smoking fake cigarettes. It meant dancing to marching band after marching band. It meant having no place to pee. Did I mention the cold chicken?

There are many nuances to this holiday that imbue a New Orleanian with a deep understanding of how to properly party till you puke. So, when strangers and friends alike who have never partaken in these festivities incredulously ask, “Your parents let you go to Mardi Gras when you were little?” remember this one thing and that is growing up in the Puritanical Mid-West sucks.

That being said, Mardi Gras was a wholesome, good time this year. On Mardi Gras day I was drunk by noon and had a hangover at 4 in the afternoon after imbibing several Hurricane Katrina Daiquiris. Tacky? Maybe. Delicious? Undeniably.

Now to gear up for Lent!

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