You can hide from it all you want, but sooner or later, the R-Monster will catch up to you. Taken at Guillermo del Toro’s “At Home With Monsters” at the LACMA.
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
This past weekend, I had a chance to check out Guillermo del Toro’s “At Home with Monsters” exhibit at the LACMA. There were giant Frankenstein heads hanging on the wall, statues of fantastical fawn creatures greeting me at the entrance, old (looking) paintings of creepy old ladies staring at me from every angle, oddities left and right… overall, things were downright creepy in there. But amidst all of the weirdness, I couldn’t help but realize that what scared me the most about the entire thing was the fact that the scariest monster of them all wasn’t even in that room. No sirree, this monster isn’t visible to the naked eye; it’s one sort of creeps up on you over the years, and no matter how much you’re able to evade it when you’re younger, it eventually catches up to you until you find yourself staring at it point-blank in the face.
That monster is a little something I like to call Responsibility.
What Lola says, goes. Here she is telling my mom and me that my mom wants grandbabies. (My mom doesn’t actually want me to have kids at this moment, but that matters zero percent to Lola.)
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
Do you ever encounter people in your life who give you a glimpse of your future self (or, at least, what you hope your future self will be like)? The kind of people who say or do seemingly peculiar things, and yet you know exactly why they do said things, because those actions and thoughts stem from a certain kind of idiosyncratic thought process that you recognize in yourself?
In my experience, I’m blessed to have a couple of people in my life who provide me with a glimpse of the kind of person I could become in the future. My mom is one of them; however, for this post, I’m going to talk about one figure in my life who, in particular, consistently inspires me and shows me what a lifetime of achievement could look like if I embraced my weirdness to its full potential. That figure is my Lola.
Ah, music festivals… places where foolish boys and girls dress foolishly to do foolish things and listen to, well, (mostly) foolish music.
In true grandma fashion, that ^^^ is the attitude I have had about music festivals for pretty much my entire life. For various reasons, I never really got into that whole scene during high school and college. The vice-laced culture of the environment pretty much scared the crap out of me as a high school kid, and I was too much of a cheapskate in college (read: #couldntaffordit) to blow tons of cash on two weekends of standing in crowds in loud places listening to less-than-par live performances by crazy-looking musicians.
But as I got older and built tougher skin (and my own source of expendable income), I decided I would go to at least one, just to see what the fuss was about. And you know what? With the right attitude and right group, the experience wasn’t so bad. Sure, there are a bunch of fools roaming around doing stupid things, but hey – if you sit back to people-watch, be present, and learn to appreciate live music, the whole thing can actually be really fun. It’s just a matter of being strategic and flexible going into the experience.
Here are some tips I’ve found to be useful when doing music festivals the chill, good-clean-fun way.
Karaoke can be a struggle… but it doesn’t have to be.
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
There are few things in life that give me more anxiety than singing in public.
(Wait, I take that back… tap-dancing in front of my cousins in obnoxiously sparkly costumes at family parties may actually be worse, but that’s a story for a different time. I digress.)
Me as a child.
That said, there is one type of environment in which I can sing my little heart out without fear of complete rejection. I’ll give you a hint: it involves late nights, beverages, friends, a whole lot of foolishness, and a microphone that sometimes shares the name with a body-rolling character played by Channing Tatum.
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loooooved watching the Olympics. Granted, I didn’t quite understand the sociopolitical challenges this event often imposes on some countries when I was a kid; but even as a slightly more jaded adult, I gotta admit – it is pretty incredible to see the world come together (somewhat) peacefully for a few games, even if it is just for a couple of weeks.
This is the first Olympics I’ve experienced without having cable or a t.v. antenna, and let me tell you: it. is. torture. Continue reading “A Cableless Olympics”→
adidaf: All Day I Dream About Food. Should I start my own brand?
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
Anyone who knows me knows that I have this uncanny affinity for food. I hesitate to call myself a “foodie” – I’m not a Yelp Elite member, I’m not the first person to try the hottest new restaurants in L.A., and my favorite places to eat at are the ones where I can enjoy an easy, no-frills, solid meal with friends – but I do admit that my food radar – “foodar”? – is on, well, pretty much all of the time.
So how exactly does this translate into my everyday life? Well, it pretty much comes down to this: my brain is hard-wired to see food everywhere. Typically this is awesome and super entertaining, but there are a few occasions during which having a foodar that never sleeps has led to a minor bout of clumsiness on my part.
Feelin’ 22… ish. (Also, those lyrics don’t match this image. Wait, is that the point of this song…?)
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
I have a confession to make: I am not a huge Taylor Swift fan. While she is most certainly not the worst pop star out there – in fact, I commend her ability to make being “adorkable” a thing, and for encouraging young girls and boys to be themselves – I never really did get on board with her saccharine vibe and catchy tunes.
But since T-Swift and I are practically the same age – we’re only about 2.5 weeks apart – there are times when I can actually identify with her lyrics.
(… And now that I read this, that actually might be a bigger confession than the first one. Whoops.)
This looks like a crime scene, but honestly, there’s no pretty way to enjoy soon tofu. Gettin’ down n’ dirty with the stew and banchan is part of the soon dubu experience.
FROM THE DESK OF: Nina
I’ve touched upon this before, but one of the things I really appreciate about living in Los Angeles is having access to some of the most incredible Korean food. I’ve already professed my love of kalguksu, but this week, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite go-to Korean dishes that isn’t BBQ: sundubu jjigae, or soon tofu stew.
Getting sick in the middle of summer – particularly during Fourth of July weekend, when the holiday is actually a three-day weekend – really blows. In the time of pool parties, outdoor concerts, backyard BBQs, and endless sunshine, all my body wants to do is rest… even though my mind tells me otherwise. It’s frustrating.
That’s exactly what happened to me this past weekend: while in Las Vegas, I caught this weird bug going around, just in time for Fourth of July fun. And despite the efforts of my mind telling those sick symptoms “nnnooo”, my body, my booooddaaayyy, decided she was gonna say yeeessss to sleep, rest, and sitting out on some of the fun. -__- Bummer.
That said… there lies hope in this, er, bummery! Being forced to rest sometimes causes me to just sit there, think, and learn how to enjoy the little things in life. I start finding little seeds of joy in random places, and this ends up countering the FOMO side effects of staying in that so often come with getting sick during particularly inopportune times like holidays.
Here are some things that brought me joy this week.
Family Time. It’s always kind of funny assuming the role of kid again when reuniting with parents and siblings. But it’s nice to be able to let loose a bit and act like a goofball around them, if just for only a little while. It’s particularly comforting having them around when I’m sick, not just because they bring me yummy comfort food (although that is a pretty big plus), but because they also infuse fun and warmth into an otherwise boring situation. Always cheers me up!
Family: they’re neat, sweet, and… petite (? I don’t know, the theme song says it).
Shark Week. I got rid of cable years ago, and admittedly, having access to Shark Week every year is probably one of the things I miss most about it. While taking a break from napping, I decided to turn on the tv and was pleasantly surprised to find out my hotel this weekend had Discovery Channel and was showing Shark Week. Thus, being sick in a hotel enabled me to get my fill of ridiculously-titled shark excursion shows like Bride of Jaws and The Killing Games. Awesome.
Honey Vanilla Chamomile Tea. Admittedly, I have become a bit picky with my tea choices in recent years. I typically only buy Tazo, which honestly, probably costs me a lot more than it should for grocery tea. #snob. This weekend, though, I rediscovered the beauty of the basic Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea Sampler. That honey vanilla chamomile? Life-changing when your throat feels like it constantly has sandpaper rubbing against it. I was sippin’ that stuff like:
Me when I get summer colds.
This video from The Global Goals’ #WhatIReallyReallyWant Campaign. Honestly, this is probably the most exciting part of this entire post. This Tuesday marks the twentieth anniversary of the Spice Girls song “Wannabe”‘s release (dang, am I actually getting old??), and to commemorate the milestone, Posh Spice Victoria Beckham posted this awesome video created by The Global Goals. A 17-goal initiative established by the United Nations, The Global Goals project focuses on promoting sustainable development “to end poverty, fix climate change, and tackle inequalities”, according to the official website. The #WhatIReallyReallyWant campaign video takes elements of the original music video and sets them against backdrops illustrating messages of empowerment, such as providing equal pay for equal work and promoting quality education for all girls. The video is meant to encourage viewers to share what they “really, really want” to see in the fight against gender inequality and tag them with the hashtag – you guessed it – #WhatIReallyReallyWant. Childhood pop songs and girl power with a healthy heaping of humanitarian efforts? Count me in.
Zig-a-zig-ah takes on a whole other meaning these days.
Brb, gonna watch all of the Spice Girls music videos real quick. And I may or may not watch Spice World, while I’m at it. Little pieces of joy, I’m telling you.
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