Owen always tells me factoids about life that change me. "Respect" was originally wrote and sung by a man, Otis Redding. It's the fucking biggest female empowerment anthem that I can think of. Brilliant. Did everyone know that and I'm slow?

ALSO she does a cover of "The Weight" that I'd never heard and it was absolutely incredible. Listen.

Also, we watched "How To Draw A Bunny" tonight. I'd seen it last year and loved every second of it, it was even better the second time. Everyone see it.

"...it's 3 o'clock and we haven't started drinking yet? Problem."

So my spring break trip down to Naples, Florida [the Hamptons of the South we've established], to stay with Libby and her mom and aunt at this gigantic beach house for the week was absolutely perfect in every which way. It was exactly what I needed to escape the bleak sadness of winter in Baltimore, and the silliness that'd been going on in my personal life. I'll review the trip solely in my camera phone pictures and a list of things that remind me of the week:

white wine with lunch

red wine with dinner

rose with dessert

dancing with old people on a town pavilion

to a man doing a killer barry white/rick james karaoke set

four weddings + a funeral

the dairy queen up the block

beach all day

pool-side lounging

WHATEVER, MARTHA! [new favorite show.]

sandwiches + cold beer on the beach

soundtrack: the entire fleetwood mac/billy joel/carole king/elton john/mamas+the papas collections

barefoot contessa + paula deen DVR'd

'singers + standards' music channel on the TV

key lime birthday pie

REALITY BITES [jesus christ that movie is so fantastic]

pina coladas/strawberry pina coladas

beautiful sunsets every single night

white linens

even if the pope said he like you too i don't give a damn cause you a -------

So I've had a crazy little week filled with personal things and loads of schoolwork, but it all culminated nicely in this warm hazy grey March day. Everything's alright now. It's Libby's last night living here with me in the apartment, it's the end of an era. We had great times here. She's moving into a hotel in the harbor tomorrow. It's my birthday weekend coming up, peacing-out the teen years, another era ended. Chilling on the beach in Florida for a week with copious amounts of champagne and wine is greatly needed and will do me much good.

Watched 'Videodrome' a few weeks ago. So great.

Found this blog, Waxin' & Milkin': A Visual Mixtape. It's fantastic. They just post single photos from the 80's and 90's like the one below. Nuff said.

Also been watching too many Stairway to Stardom videos. It was this old public access show from Brooklyn in the 70's. It's fucking beautiful. These are the two best ones:

PS. She IS speaking to Libby Landauer in the above video.

lisa, my love

Was in the city for a nice long relaxing weekend.

Seeing the new Lisa Yuskavage show at David Zwirner was life-changing.

It's such a cliche but these photos from the gallery website do NOTHING for the paintings themselves. 

The colors are so much more vibrant in person, and the large scale most of them are is utterly fantastic, but they're worth showing anyway...

My drawing teacher from last year is friends with her, and had told me last semester he visited her at her apartment and she was focusing more on playing the piano now than painting. I'm quite glad she decided to start painting again...