| December 7, 2009 | A Ladybug Hitchhiker |
 A ladybug got into Chris' BMW M3 and rode with us from Los Angeles to Prescott, AZ for Thanksgiving and then back to LA. Using the macro lens on my Panasonic Lumix, I documented some of the adventures the ladybug had as it wandered across the various textures of my purse, my hand, the dashboard, the visors, and the windshield as we sped along the freeways through the desert.This one where the ladybug looks like a gigantic supersaturated red-orange balloon in the sky over the cars below is one of my favorites, because it looks so surreal. In this one (which is also pretty surreal) it looks like a giant ladybug is falling from the sky. Here is a link to the entire set of photos. posted by Jess Barron @ 7:23 PM 
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| June 2, 2009 | Opening Party David Lynch's Photo Exhibit |
Michael Kohn Gallery threw an opening party on May 29 for David Lynch's photo exhibit "Dark Night of the Soul." The line went way down Beverly Blvd. I heard more than one  person in line (and walking by) comment, "When was the last time you saw such a long line at an art opening!?" But it was worth the wait. (We have all witnessed how gaga I get for David Lynch.)Many of Lynch's photos on display in the Kohn Gallery (through July 11) elicit for me the same moods and feelings evoked in my favorite of his films. A weird disturbed nostalgia and the creepiness of dreams. That's how I felt about this shadowy BBQ by a too-perfect to be true Pacific Ocean. And this photo of woman giving the finger from the backseat of car reminded me of the teens who cause the fatal car accident in "Mulholland Drive." This hazy couple on the street at night reminded me of the cast of characters Laura Dern encounters on Hollywood Blvd in "Inland Empire." The photo which most perfectly fits the theme "Dark Night of the Soul" is this photo of a dingy lamp and bedside table with a corner filled with an overflowing pile of prescription pill bottles. That to me, truly communicates the modern American's long, lonely, troubled, sleepless night -- trying to medicate to escape from the pain of old and new terrors. It all reminds me of the quote from the final episode of Mad Men's first season "The Wheel," when Don Draper (in a mid-day meeting preceding his own "dark night of the soul") pitches his advertising colleagues and the client on a concept to sell Polaroid's "wheel" slide projector: Nostalgia - it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It let's us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved. I used to write a column for my college newspaper called "Nostalgia for the Present," and this quote has really stuck with me, and I think it also reminds me of what I like about David Lynch's movies, photos, and art. Labels: art, davidlynch, la, madmen, nostalgia, photos, quotes posted by Jess Barron @ 11:26 AM
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| October 31, 2006 | Birtney and KFed Do Halloween 2006 in L.A. |
Chris and I dressed up as Britney and KFed this year.  Check out this video showing how we decided what to wear. We started Saturday night at the Halloween Vlog Fest party in honor of Amanda Congdon in the lobby of the Yahoo! Center in Santa Monica, and then we were headed to West Hollywood to a fabulous bash at Court's place. My two favorite costumes of the evening were Strawberry Shortcake (a.k.a. Sam of daily online video serial show Sam Has 7 Friends at the vlog party) and a seriously decked-out Marie Antoinette (in WeHo). Check out the photos. Labels: britney, chris, halloween, kfed, la, party, photos, video, vlog, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 11:40 PM
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| October 27, 2006 | Getting 'Sexy' for Halloween |
 Last Friday, October 20, I went on MSNBC's "The Most" with Alison Stewart to talk about popular Halloween costume searches this year on Yahoo! If you play a drinking game and take a shot of tequila every time I said "sexy" during the 60 second interview, you might get sick. Pirate costumes are popular this year, particularly sexy pirates. I'm not revealing what my costume is this year...yet. But from 1997-2004, I've been Aeon Flux, Cruella Deville, a vampire, a devil, a bumblebee, a bad pilgrim, legally blonde, and most recently, Jackie Kennedy. Labels: costume, halloween, msnbc, photos, sexy, video, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 6:11 AM
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| October 20, 2006 | A Very Pregnant Friend Sings 'Papa Don't Preach' |
 My Yahoo Broadband team members converged on Santa Monica for our Editorial Summit, and we also celebrated Heather's soon-to-be-born little guy. How did we celebrate? With karaoke, of course. You really haven't lived until you've seen a very pregnant friend or co-worker sing Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach." It was perfect. LJ sang a song by Donna Summer. Jim sang No Doubt's "Keep on Dancin.'" Dave O sang "(What's so Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding?' Greg sang Weezer's "Sweater Song." Dave C. sang a Creedance Clearwater Revival song. I did my usual Snoop Dogg. (Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Eric's hardcore version of Pat Benatar, because the camera was out in the car at the beginning...) Check out the pictures. Labels: broadband, editorial, karaoke, photos, pregnant, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 5:42 AM
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| September 7, 2006 | We Faced Our Fears at Burning Man 2006 |
Chris was a Burning Man virgin this year.  (Not me, My virgin burn was 1999 -- you can read my journal about it. I also went out to the desert in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005...) During our drive to Nevada, I asked him what he most feared about Burning Man."Seeing naked guys kinda freaks me out," he said. "Oh, you mean dude-ity?" I said. "Yeah, I guess." We arrived on the playa at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday after driving for over 13 hours (it's a much longer drive from Los Angeles, than from SF!) It was the middle of a dust storm, and we were freezing cold and tired and both had to pee. It was very hard to find a space to camp. In the past, I had almost always camped with a group of friends in a theme camp with a reserved spot. We drove around for at least a half hour, being turned away from every spot, until we arrived at 4:30 and Hope. We set up camp in the dust storm and it wasn't until much later that we viewed the theme camp directly across the street: called Our Lady of Schlongs: Meat Inspection camp. Talk about Chris facing his fears!!! Needless to say over the course of the week, they had a lot of visitors and we saw a lot of schlongs. They gave us the best bloody marys I have ever had. So spicy and delicious. Check out all my photos from Burning Man 2006. Labels: burningman, chris, dudity, photos, slang posted by Jess Barron @ 10:50 PM
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| July 28, 2006 | Pam Anderson is Actually Very Pretty |
At the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in Monterey last weekend, Chris and I ended up standing 5 feet away from Pamela Anderson as she walked out of the pitts area and climbed into a car. Always quick on the draw, Chris captured 2 excellent photos of the soon-to-be Mrs. Kid Rock.  Two things that surprised me about Pam Anderson: 1. She was truly wicked freakin hot. I was expecting her to look overly made up and tacky, kind of like Anna Nicole Smith. But here's the deal -- she's a really cute gal. She was wearing very little make up and a cute, simple black tank top. Even her chest didn't look ridiculously huge. 2. She was with a guy I didn't recognize, and the mystery guy was definitely not Kid Rock. It's not that big of a deal -- because I'm sure she has tons of male friends -- but I'm just wondering if anyone recognizes the guy. Take a look at the photo, and let me know who you think he is. Shortly after seeing Pam, we saw Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni, known to most of the world as just... Fabio. Just as you might imagine, he's very tan and his long-hair was flowing in the breeze. This photo I took of Fabio and some "umbrella girls" is just like the cover of a romance novel. Or, errr, something... But, what man can resist hanging out with umbrella girls? Labels: fabio, grandprix, motogp, motorcycle, pamelaanderson, photos, racing, umbrellagirls posted by Jess Barron @ 5:56 AM
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| July 22, 2006 | Faster Than Photographs |
 The GP bikes are louder than I thought. When they're coming out of a turn and accelerating -- it sounds like a giant ultra-amplified lawnmower. We brought several pairs of ear plugs with us, and I put mine in as we walked toward the edge of the track. I squeezed the foam tight and pressed one into each ear. As the foam expanded, it shut out the sound completely, and i could no longer hear Chris. Labels: motogp, motorcycle, photos, speed posted by Jess Barron @ 12:33 PM
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| June 15, 2006 | You Can Lead a Whore to Vassar... |
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"You can lead a whore to Vassar, but you can't make her think." -Frederick B. Artz, noted medieval historian  For some inexplicable reason, we went back to Poughkeepsie, New York to celebrate the Vassar Class of 1996 10-year reunion. Thankfully, there was a lot of drinking. You can look at the pictures. It struck me that ten years is somehow both a very long and a very short amount of time. And I'm not the only person who had profound thoughts. In one of the bathroom stalls in Josselyn dorm, one of my classmates scrawled in black Sharpie marker: "I love Vassar, but my girlfriend won't." Ah, the coed college bathrooms of my youth. Being back at Vassar, I realized it was probably the only place where Chris, Mindy, Erik, and I could all pee standing/sitting alongside each other. Ah, co-education is a beautiful thing, despite what one of the women from the (female only) class of 1946 exclaimed loudly at my classmates. Little did she know that by far the most popular party during my time at Vassar was the annual Homo Hop. The other Vassar 10th reunion take-away I will share is that those tiny twin-sized dorm beds with plastic mattresses are completely uncomfortable and I have no idea how we ever slept in them. Nevermind, with more than one person in a bed. Which reminds me... "If all the girls at Vassar were laid end to end... I wouldn't be at all surprised." - Dorothy Parker As I said, you can look at the pictures. Nothing too risque this time. The five-year reunion was a bit more lively. Does this mean we're *gasp* getting old? Have you been ever been to your high school or college reunion? If so what did you think? Labels: chris, college, mindy, pee, photos, reunion, vassar posted by Jess Barron @ 10:45 PM
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| November 17, 2005 | Gawking at 'Yahoo! Jocks' |
Last night after our day-long editorial conference at The Viceroy (I presented on the  topic of "What Works and What Doesn't for Yahoo! Broadband Portals"), a bunch of us Yahoo!'s and our entourage went to a cocktail party at Arianna Huffington's house thrown by Yahoo!'s Lloyd Braun and Scott Moore in honor of Gawker's Nick Denton and Mark Lisanti and celebrating the Yahoo!/Gawker syndication deal. (That's right, you can now check out a random assortment of Gawker posts co-branded on Yahoo! News. Yay. I think. Or maybe that's just the party line...)Arianna was an amazing hostess. She greeted us all personally as we arrived. (just as sweetly as she greeted Bill Maher and David Mamet.) And her bartenders certainly poured some stiff freaking drinks. Chris took tons of photos, as always of our posse at the party. I'm not so sure I can run for President anymore. Sarah also took a bunch of pics. Sadly, no Arianna. Our reflexes were obviously dulled by the drinks again. While sipping vodka and sodas, I met Gawker's Lockhart Steele, who it turns out is also class of 1996 and also a former college newspaper geek. Lockhart, alas, did not try to pick me up, though our very own superstar editor John Briggs did and succeeded (and I didn't even spill my drink!) Here's gridskipper's little post about the party. They called us "Yahoo jocks." Dunno what they're talking about. I thought that whole cool vs. uncool, nerds versus jocks thing went outta style in 1987. This means war! You know how I'm so sensitive about these things... I pinged the URLs to Esther today, and she IM'd back: esther: funny that gridskipper calls it a 'melee'/gang war and chris calls it a 'love fest' Chris described the scene more accurately. I witnessed a lot more lips-to-ass contact between the Gawker and Yahoo! crews than any actual threats of personal violence. It was all about the laaaaaaahv. Sweet, sweet laaahv. And I, personally, loved it. You can read more about the party on Defamer, and look at their pics. After Arianna's, I drove Oren, Rick, and Mali (followed in another car by Heather and Allyson) to the In-n-Out burger in Westwood for some late night cheeseburgers (with onions!). We drove with the top down and blasted Spandeau Ballet's "True" (screaming along at the top of our lungs) as we headed back to Santa Monica to the Viceroy. Labels: ariannahuffington, chris, gawker, in-n-outburger, la, party, photos, viceroy, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:23 PM
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| November 10, 2005 | Why Are All These Famous People Stalking Us? |
Neil from the Yahoo! News team invited bunch of us to attend the  International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) Courage in Journalism Awards at the Regent Beverly Wilshire last Wednesday evening after work, and Laura and I met Maria Shriver and CNN's Judy Woodruff.Then yesterday Allyson met Bono at (of all places) the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale. She risked being fired to capture this photo, all for our enjoyment. And, don't let me forget -- Bethany met David Lynch this week at his talk on transcendental meditation. Honestly, this one makes me truly jealous. We all know how obsessed I am and have been with David Lynch. Labels: celebrities, davidlynch, famous, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 1:26 PM
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| October 31, 2005 | Can You Distinguish Substance from Fluff? |
Dear fans of math and logic puzzles,  I have some questions for you to ponder. If Jess Barron was in New York City for 4 nights and slept no more than 3 hours-per-night (for a grand total of 12 hours of sleep in 3 days):1. How many fellow journalists did she exchange business cards with during the ONA conference? 2. How many cocktails did she consume? 3. How many hours did she spend in the post-midnight pre-dawn hours running around the city with co-workers and friends? 4. How many seconds was her face in lights on the enormous Reuters billboard in Times Square? I've been pondering these questions for several hours myself on the plane ride back to the West Coast, and the only answer I can determine is A LOT. If you can provide more specific or accurate answers, perhaps you should consider applying to Mensa. Or perhaps you should stop stalking me. Contrary to the popular belief of my co-workers (Dave Carpenter, for example), I do usually like to get 6-8 hours of sleep per night under normal circumstances. My body wants that much sleep, and on some greedy nights my brain would probably be happiest with 9-10 hours of sleep. But the problem I run into again and again is that there is generally so much I want to do and sleep merely gets in the way of my ability to get it all done. There are so many people love spending time with, there is so much work I want to accomplish, and there are also numerous personal projects. As a certain boy famously told me back in February 2002 "You have -- as we say in the office -- 'a tendency to overcommit.'" It's become ever-increasingly true, and it seems like I'll never stop trying to stretch the space-time continuum. My professional work-type duties while in New York included:
My dad's advice when I told him on the phone about the podcasting panel, "Just don't drink too much the night before." In addition to these professional obligations, I had planned to see my longtime friends Jeff and Lee and also possibly meet Jeremy Abbate who wrote a song called "I Wanna Be as Cool as Jessica Barron" after reading my blog without having ever met me. Of course, there were other friends and people I wanted to meet (including Brooklynite Ted Gesing who created the infamous and much-loved Nutria documentary), but I figured it might be prudent if I focused only on these three. Even though neither one of them has yet to compose a single song in my honor, I gave my scheduling priority to Jeff and Lee since they've been my dear friends for 16 and 10 years, respectively. (I met Jeff when we ran against each other for a student government position in 1989. I met Lee while traveling in Turkey in 1995.) After they've put up with me for so long, it's the least I can do. I arrived at JFK at 5p.m. on Wednesday, and called Jeff and Lee during my cabride to the hotel (the Hilton on 6th Ave). Jeff took the subway to my hotel and we hungout in my room and raided my mini bar, concocting what seemed to be some really strong gin and tonics. Though you will actually be charged on your bill for the snacks and liquor you take out of your hotel room mini fridge, breaking the plastic seal on the door still feels more like "raiding" to me. It brings me back to hotel stays during barely-chaperoned junior high and high school class trips when we would physically break the cheap locks on the mini bars and spend the evenings getting drunk on the little nip-bottles we didn't quite understand how to combine and mix. Jeff suggested the idea of eating at The Odeon in the East Village which he (and Citysearch) described as a place that had "a decadent heyday during the hard-partying '80s." Since I can hardly resist anything that's decadent, hard-partying, or from the 1980s, I announced that I was game. Lee called to say that he and his girlfriend Brett would meet us there for dinner. The food was decent. I had an heirloom tomato and goat cheese salad (my two absolute favorites) followed by an entree of broiled scallops. Jeff had a steak. We debated and discussed San Francisco versus New York City versus Los Angeles. After dinner Jeff and I went to the Stone Rose Lounge, a big airy bar inside the Time Warner Center with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. We drank $17 martinis until about 2 in the morning. When arrived back to my hotel room, I couldn't sleep. Throughout the evening I kept calling the West-Coast-to-East-Coast time difference the "West Coast Advantage" to my friends, because it enabled me to easily party until dawn, but as I sat propped up on pillows in bed checking email on my laptop until 4 in the morning, it was clear that it wasn't quite an advantage. Especially since I needed to be at the Associated Press office by 8:45 a.m. for an all-day Flash class to learn how to build automated slideshows with audio soundtracks. Wednesday night (umm, that'd be Thursday morning) I slept from 4:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m., and I was still 10 minutes late for the class. Though I generally have a strong aptitude for picking up computer applications, it was quickly apparent that I was the worst student in the Flash class. I had to ask the teacher to explain everything and show me everything personally one more time. I was pathetic. And, sadly I can't honestly blame my remedial status on the lack of sleep and amount of drinking. Between timeliness, layers, keyframes and tweening, Flash is a complicated program, and it can easily explode your head. Or, at least it can easily explode my head. I wasn't familiar with being the slowest student in the class, and consequently it was a very difficult day. When I got back to my hotel room a little after 6 p.m., Lee called and told me he made 8:30 reservations at Bread Tribeca. "I made reservations for 4 of us," he said, "So you can bring one of your friends." I was starving, and I wanted to make the phone calls to see if Sam or Dave had arrived in New York yet and extend an invitation to dinner, but first I needed to close my eyes and attempt to extend myself an invitation to an hour-long nap. I set the alarm on my cell phone, took off my clothes, put on a t-shirt and curled up under the covers. As exhausted and drained as I was from a day spent inserting keyframes and creating tweens in Flash class, I closed my eyes but could not sleep. Still, I was determined to keep my head on the pillow. At 6:45 p.m. my phone rang, and I jumped out of bed to answer the call. It was my friend Sam who works on content programming for yahoo.com. He had arrived at the hotel and asked if I wanted to go grab some food. I invited him to dinner and quickly got back into bed to try to catch that elusive nap before it was too late. Twenty minutes later my phone rang again. It was Dave from the Toronto office. He had already arrived and headed out to dinner by himself, but suggested that we meet up later for drinks. I tried for a third time to nap, but quickly gave up and turned on the TV and started changing back into my clothes. Sam, Lee, Brett, and I had dinner at Bread Tribeca. The food was decent. I had cauliflower puree soup as a starter followed by linguine with clams. We also shared a few bottles of red wine. After dinner Dave called and said, "I'm at a really fun karaoke bar in the East Village called Second on Second, you should come over here." It was approaching midnight, and as much as I love karaoke -- I wanted to head back closer to the hotel. I honestly every intention of getting to bed at a sober and decent hour. With that in mind, I asked Dave to meet Sam and me at the W hotel bar because it was the only thing I could think of. During our cab ride to the W, Bill and Chris called. Bill was out with colleagues and asked me if I had talked to JB yet. I told him I hadn't but that I had left a message. I also told him that Sam and I were heading over to the W. Chris and the Yahoo! News team had just finished dinner and were wandering around Times Square near our hotel. I told them we were in a cab headed for the W. They said they might meet us there. Dave found Sam and I at the W, but by y 1:30 or 2, we hadn't seen Bill nor the Yahoo! News folks. We were wondering what to do when Bill phoned to say that he and JB were at a bar called Faces and Names near the Rihga hotel. We left the W to walk over to Faces and Names and phoned Chris and Ron on Yahoo! News to let them know. By 2:30 we were all hanging out together at Faces and Names. By 3a.m. there was talk of heading back to the hotel. JB, Chris, Sam, Dave and I started the walk back, but were immediately seduced by the bright white lights of a neighborhood pizza place. JB ordered us a pie to go, then he and Dave went into the bodega nextdoor to pick up some beer while we waited for the pizza to be ready. We carried brown bags of pizza and beer back to the hotel and decided to continue the party in JB's room. I headed to my room to get Bocce since she had been cooped up in the hotel all day. We ate pizza and drank beer until around 4 a.m. when we were kidnapped and gagged by guerilla marketers for Yahoo! News' Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. Bocce liked the pizza, but didn't necessarily enjoy her time as a walking Hot Zone advertisement. At 4:30a.m. Sam and Dave headed to bed. JB, Chris, and I took the dog outside for a walk, and Chris snapped action photos of me picking up Bocce's poop. Can you say poop-arazzi? I thought you could. After all that excitement, Bocce and I decided it was time for bed. The next day I attended some panels and prepared for my own. It went fairly well (you can listen to a portion of my talk), though afterward I wished I had talked more about content for podcasts than mostly just focusing on the how-tos. After the ONA-sponsored cocktail hour where I met Mark Fiore, some folks from CBS News, Anj from Yahoo!s Toronto office and many others, we all headed back to our rooms to freshen up and then bundle up and agreed to meet up at 8:30 at South's in Tribeca where we would have some more drinks before our 9:45 dinner reservation at 66. While back in my hotel room, I decided to don my Jackie Kennedy outfit which I had packed in case an inkling of Halloween spirit hit me. Post-cocktail-hour I felt it was a great idea to wear a bright pink suit and pillbox hat even though none of my other compatriots were dressed in costume. This is how I roll. Lee and Brett met Sam, Dave, Anj and I at South's. Then Bill showed up carrying an unopened container of marshmallow Fluff that he said he had brought for me. "I hope you're not implying that our Yahoo! Broadband Portal content is fluff!" I said giggling and grabbing the container of Fluff. After a while, the Yahoo! News crew (Neil, Ron, Oren, Chris, Sarah, and Peter) arrived at South's, and we all walked down the block to 66. Jeff and his boyfriend Daniel were sitting in the lounge drinking cocktails when we arrived. Sam -- who was just meeting Jeff for the first time -- commented: "It was obvious that Jeff had known you for years because when you walked into this chichi restaurant dressed as Jackie Kennedy and carrying a giant container of Fluff, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised." At 10p.m., we found out the hard way that NYC reservations for big groups rarely start on time. At 10:30 p.m. we were drinking ginger margaritas in the lounge area and noshing on appetizers as we waited for our back room to be ready. By 11 p.m. (I think) we were seated for dinner at three tables in our own room. I was seated at the end of a table surrounded by my NYC friends. Daniel and Jeff were on my left, Lee and Brett on my right. Before any of the food started arriving on the tables, Bill instigated the idea that he and I would open the container of Fluff and offer it around to the other tables. "Would you care for some fluff?" I said as I did my best 1960s stewardess impression. Our hard work and dedication paid off. We were triumphant. We managed to get nearly every person to try a spoonful of Fluff -- and several brave souls plunged their fingers right into the container. Others used chopsticks. The barbarous and uncouth "Fluff course" of the meal mortified my black-clad NYC friends. Living in San Francisco for five years (and going to Burning Man five times) definitely enhanced my already overactive capacity for absurdity. If a group of twenty of my co-workers are giggling and sticking their fingers into their mouths -- in my mind it was a great ice-breaker. It was the least I could do. Dinner ended sometime after midnight. Lee, Brett, and Daniel headed home and many of my co-workers decided to call it a night, but Jeff, Anj, Dave, Oren, Sarah, Ron, Chris, Mic, Peter and I ventured to Second on Second. We arrived, got ourselves some drinks and put our name in for karaoke to do Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Unfortunately the stack of song requests on the KJ's podium was enormous and we left to head back to the hotel before our name was called. This time the late night after-party was in Ron and Chris' rooms. We drank beers from the mini bars and chatted as music played from Chris' laptop. He played Echo and the Bunnymen and The Smiths at my request. The TV was on playing an endless loop of Larry King interviewing commentators about the Libby indictment with the volume turned all the way down. It seemed certain that Chris and I will become fast friends. And Anj and me too. Even though we just met -- she and I were having a great time hanging out together. Sam, Dave and I are already pretty tight after working together for over 2 years. (Dave and I have even partied in London together on a work trip...) On Saturday I attended a bunch more panels. My favorite was Digital Visual Storytelling, though the Saturday afternoon panel "Journalism 2010: Who's leading the way?" (which our own Neil Budde sat as a panelist on) was also quite interesting with its now-seemingly-obligatory and impassioned blogger versus "dinosaur" bashing. Afterward we went to the Reuters-sponsored cocktail party. Then we headed to a bar in the East Village, where we smoked flavoured tobacco out of a giant hookah. For dinner we went to Il Bagatto (on Jeff's excellent suggestion). I ate with Daniel and Jeff while unfortunately my starving co-workers (Sam, Ron, Anj and Chris) and their entourage of young journalism students were kept waiting at the bar for almost an hour (unacceptable!). Luckily, they made lemonaide from lemons and befriended the perky bartender (she gave Jeff and Daniel three olives each in their martinis!) After dinner we wandered around the East Village spotting (and accosting) folks in Halloween costumes. There were even more Ali G's this year than last year (this Yahoo! one was my favorite). Then we went to KGB for some drinks amid Soviet paraphernalia. We got back to the hotel around 2:30 and I took Bocce for a walk and then went to bed. I seriously needed some sleep. On Sunday morning I packed and checked out of the hotel, and took a cab to Park Slope Brooklyn to visit Jeff and Daniel at their apartment and meet their Great Dane puppy Ace. Ace is beautiful. He's sleek and gray. He's also HUGE! He weighs 125-pounds and is still growing. Jeff and Daniel say he will soon be 50 pounds larger. Unfortunately it was difficult-if-not-impossible for 12-pound middle-aged Bocce to play with a teenage dog who was ten times(!) her size. Jeff and Daniel made us brunch of pumpkin pancakes, eggs, bacon, and Daniel's homemade (from scratch!) pumpkin pie. It was awesome. And then I got in a car to head back to JFK to fly home. I'm sorry I didn't meet my personal songwriter Jeremy Abbate, but I'm psyched that I ended up getting my photo displayed in lights on the huge Reuters screen in Times Square (thanks Sarah!) P.S. Almost all photos I'm linking to in this post were taken by Chris Sarah, Ron, and Jeff as I left my camera behind this time... Labels: bocce, chris, costume, dog, jeff, karaoke, lee, nyc, ona, photos, radio, slang, travel, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 11:20 AM
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| September 22, 2005 | Off to Vail |
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Here are some photos from Selena's wedding up in Portland last weekend. Right now, I'm headed to SFO to fly to Vail for Ellen's wedding. Well, I'm flying to Denver, renting a car and driving up to Vail, but that's just too many words. This time, I'm a bridesmaid. (It's my first stint at this, so wish me luck.) Labels: bridesmaid, ellen, photos, selena, travel, vail, wedding posted by Jess Barron @ 9:43 AM
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| September 16, 2005 | What About Burning Man? |
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Dear readers, some of you think it's a serious oversight that I have not posted about Burning Man yet. "Was it not good this year?" you have asked me. No, it's not that at all, it's just that I've been pretty overwhelmed since I've returned. When I got back from Burning Man, we were very much in the midst of covering hurricane Katrina pretty hardcore. It was news, news, news for work. Heather and Allyson were handling the brunt of it, but I had just over 2,000 work emails to sift through while more were still piling up on top of them. I've been working 10-12 hours every day, and I'm just about almost dug-out. (Tomorrow morning I'm flying to Portland for Selena's wedding and then next week to Vail for Ellen's wedding.) Burning Man was freaking awesome. Out of the past six that I've gone to (the first being 1999), this one was, by far, my favorite of all. Campmates got along, weather was pretty decent (except for Monday which was a raging windstorm that destroyed our shade structure), and my art project was a success. This year I have *4* sets of Burning Man photos posted on flickr: Spending hours talking to people inside my psychiatric help booth each day was truly amazing. A lot of people out there just needed to talk. Somehow everyone expects in their mind that Burning Man is this big party where everyone is non-stop ecstatic -- but there really are a lot of people who get to the playa and begin dealing with issues of loneliness, isolation, and sadness. At Burning Man in 2000, I was dealing with a lot of these types of issues myself. There were also people whose boyfriends or girlfriends had dumped them at the event, people who were having marriage difficulties, people who felt like their campmates didn't like them, people who were having problems meeting new friends. I will write a bit more about this whole experience soon. I just need a bit more time to process it. My two favorite art projects at Burning Man this year were: Labels: art, burningman, photos posted by Jess Barron @ 4:08 PM
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| August 26, 2005 | 22 Hours in Los Angeles, 2 Hours in a Karaoke Booth |
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22 hours in Los Angeles 3 hours in meetings 2 hours in a karaoke booth Allyson, Heather and I flew down to Los Angeles for 22 hours to meet with our Yahoo! co-workers on the entertainment, music, and news teams to discuss all the exciting upcoming content which, of course, I can't tell you about. But I assure you it's cool stuff. Since I always like to begin any excursion or adventure well-rested (ummm, who am I kidding? perhaps well-caffeinated, or maybe well-dressed), I started the day yesterday on 3.5 hours of sleep because I was down in Sunnyvale at 5a.m. to do some East Coast radio interviews for Yahoo! Buzz on my office landline. (My housemates and I don't have a landline phone at our house and it seems ridiculous to sign up for one when I'm moving to LA in just 2 months.) The highlight of our trip down south was definitely the 2 hours we spent with Laura, Richard, and Chris in an Asian-style (private room) karaoke place off of Sawtelle in West Los Angeles. I would pay at least $35 for an mp3 recording of our sextet's (the use of this word makes our behavior sound more debaucherous) awesomely-outrageous rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." It certainly brought a tear to my eye. Similarly, witnessing the tortured magic of Chris and Laura's spontaneous and unplanned performance of Akon's "Lonely" can hardly be described. Thankfully, Heather took some photos of it all, and we can console ourselves that soon she will be posting them to flickr. postscript: Here's Heather's flickr photoset. Labels: allyson, chris, karaoke, la, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:53 PM
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| August 17, 2005 | Brides, Bachelorettes, and my Scorching Hot Social Calendar |
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Forgive me, dear reader. I've been kept away from the blog-a-log internets by my scorching hot social calendar, which had me driving to Tahoe to get gussied up in pretty party clothes with August, Owen, and Bethany to attend Jen and Deneb's wedding. Their wedding was up on a mountain, and we had to take a scary cable car to get up there. And I'm afraid of heights. But we somehow survived. And Jen looked beautiful, and Deneb rocked out. And August, Bethany, Owen and I sat at a table of 8 with Kurt Loder. Yes, *the* Kurt Loder from MTV and Rolling Stone. I was really excited to talk to him, but he didn't want to talk to us very much. Maybe we're really, really obnoxious? Or maybe he's just really, really shy? (He did seem to enjoy August's conversation about '60s one-hit pop bands he loves like Herman and the Hermits.) On the way back from Tahoe, I took August to Sonoma to celebrate his 29th birthday and getting accepted into the 39th ranked Law School in the country (U.C. Hastings). Yay! I celebrated with him so hard and at so many wineries that I ended up throwing up. Not just once, but many times. And I was the only licensed driver out of the two of us, so we were stuck and had to spend an additional night in wine country and then wake up at 5:45a.m. to drive back to S.F. to pick up my velvety fruitbat of a dog from the kennel and then drive down to Sunnyvale to make a 9a.m. meeting. I guess I should be thankful I didn't throw up at the wedding. Then I worked really hard for three days, and did the radio show, and flew to Denver for approximately 28 hours for my friend Ellen's bachelorette party. This weekend, I hafta do all of my Burning Man packing and preparing, and then the following weekend I leave for the playa for 9 days. When I return from the playa, it will be September. I will have one weekend to unpack and clean up my stuff, and then I will be flying out to Vail, CO for Ellen's wedding which I'll be a bridesmaid in. The next weekend I'll fly up up to Portland for Selena's wedding. Monkey and Mici just decided to elope next weekend because she's too busy with Law School to handle taking time out for their October Marin wedding. In October, I'll make 2-3 weekend trips down to Los Angeles to (hopefully) find myself a new home down there (I plan to move to LA on November 1), and then I'll fly to New York for the ONA conference for that last weekend of October. Then I'll start moving. Basically, my entire life is scheduled through November 1. My head is spinning and I have a lotta plane tickets and hotel reservations. Does everyone else have a lot going on too for August, September, October? Or is it just me? Labels: august, bethany, owen, photos, tahoe, travel, wedding, wine posted by Jess Barron @ 12:48 AM
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| August 3, 2005 | I'm very worried about dragons... |
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"Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids. People say that you'll die, faster than without water, but we know it's just a lie, scare your son, scare your daughter. People say that your dreams are the only things that save ya. Come on baby in our dreams, we can live on misbehavior." -The Arcade Fire, "Rebellion (Lies)"  August, Bocce and I road-tripped with Andy in his Element that was filled to the top with camping gear, food and supplies from San Francisco up to Klickitat, Washington. We left my house in SF at 7a.m. and after an entire day of driving, arrived at Esther and Jason's camp around 10p.m. that night.We promptly unpacked the Nutria Republic flag I had brought and hung it up. Then we opened some beers. Or maybe we opened the beers first. I can't remember now. "Oh my god, Jessica! There's giant bugs everywhere!" Esther said. "And we keep seeing them in the tents!" "Aggh! What kind of bugs?" I squealed. "I've never really camped where there are bugs before!" (Plus, I'm scared of bugs.) "Giant beetles and these things that look like giant roaches!" Esther said. "Also, ants! Part of the shade structure is on an enormous ant hill. We didn't realize that until after we had picked this spot. Also, when we were building it, we realized that we are on a lava flow and it was impossible to pound in the rebar." The terrain was definitely more apocalyptic than the sites of the 2 past Phoenix festivals I had been to. Though we couldn't see it too well in the dark, the land had been burned in a forest fire about 10 years earlier. There were dead trees with knarled branches like the fingers of the world's oldest woman all around. I decided immediately that the Black Rock Desert in Nevada (where Burning Man is held each year) was a much more hospitable place to camp. Our friends Phil and Lori who helped organize the festival stopped by to say hi. "We were talking to the fire crew," Phil said. "And if one person drops a cigarette on the ground -- all this dry straw grass will go up in flames and we're all gonna die. Seriously. There is only one road in and out of this place. And they said the fire moves like 10 feet per second. There's no way we could outrun it. And we'd never get these cars out in time on that road." It seemed true. The road in to the campsite wasn't paved and was too bumpy and rocky to drive more than 5 miles per hour, even in the sporty Element. I was glad we hadn't driven my lowriding Volkswagen Beetle. It was too late to pitch tents, and too rocky anyway, and also we were too tired, so we all drank until we fell asleep on the floor of the shade structure. I didn't sleep well, because I was too worried about the giant bugs we had seen crawling through the shade structure while we were drinking, and then in the middle of the night it started pouring rain and thundering. The shade structure kept most of us dry, except Wink who was sleeping underneath the connection between the two tarps. The next day Esther set up the Nutria Interpretive Center (which I called the "Nutria Re-Education Camp"), and I distracted myself by reading about nutria and then asking everyone to contemplate the many mysteries of their species, for example, "Just how frenzied *is* their copulation, I ask you?" For the next two days we played music, played more music, played more music, and played even more music, danced to music, ran around in the rocky hills and field, and got very, very worried when we encountered a pair of sneaky blacklight dragons lurking near what we thought was a cool-looking stage. "This stage looks really cool!" said Andy, as we approached a place with flowy colorful lights. When we got closer -- they popped up outta nowhere: a pair of day-glow painted dragons, making the moment at once completely dorky and completely hysterical. Thankfully, we didn't encounter many fabric batiks or blacklight posters of bare breasted alien women. As anyone that's ever been to an all-night trance party knows, this is a serious concern. But in this case, we were able to focus our worry on the dragons. We became Dragon Worriers (inspired by an Amber chatlog). And we laughed so hard that we cried. "Do you worry a lot?" "Dragons are a very real worry in this day and age!" "Too many people are concerned about dragons." "California is very dangerous." etc. etc. We realized that everyone knows that dragons *love* rainbows, and that nutria do not. Also, we vowed to avoid typing in the dark. We didn't sleep much at all, except sometimes on the floor of the shade structure in the afternoon. The other main psytrance stage didn't have any dragons (nor fabric batiks or blacklight alien posters, thankfully), but at 2a.m. it looked and felt exactly like a setting from the Sony Playstation game Karaoke Revolution. The purple and pink colors felt like they were straight from a video game. The crowd around the stage and the lights felt like they were straight from a video game. But, perhaps most of all, the speaker dancers (or "speaker bitches," as we called them) were 100% straight from a video game. They were not real; they were made out of pixels. That could be the *only* explanation for how they looked. How else could her nipples have been quite so perky? How else could his jaw -- and scowl -- have been quite so chisled? There really was no other explanation. In addition to our ongoing -- and increasingly frenzied -- worries about dragons, we learned about the Free Cascadia movement, where Oregon and Washington want to succeed from the United States and bring Northern California with them. Man, the people of the Pacific Northwest have some crazy stuff going on... Like dragons and nutria. It's like the freakin' "land before time" up there or somethin' with all these mythical creatures roaming around. You don't need to be worried about nutria; just worry about dragons and everything else will be OK, I promise. Labels: andy, august, california, dragons, esther, nutria, oregon, party, phoenixfestival, photos, worries posted by Jess Barron @ 10:42 PM
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| July 20, 2005 | The Phoenix from the Flames... |
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I'm about to take off to drive up to Portland with Andy and August to go to the Phoenix Festival up in Washington. We're gonna meet Esther and Jason up there and camp in the ambient chill area. On Friday night, it's all gals on the decks -- Ladies Only DJ night. Bocce's coming too. It's her 3rd Phoenix Festival. She's not a huge fan of camping, because she gets a little bit cold at night. But she loves it during the daytime when she can lay around in the sun or inside the tent. Here are my photos from the Phoenix Fest in 2002 and here are some photos from 2004. Labels: andy, august, bocce, phoenix festival, photos, washington posted by Jess Barron @ 11:56 PM
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| July 11, 2005 | Da Governator Vs. Da Protestors |
 Da California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger came to speak at Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale as the latest of our Yahoo! Influentials speakers (New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Tom Brokaw were previous speakers).On the corner of Mathilda Ave there were about 35-50 people loudly protesting the Governator's policies and presence. They were in the same spot where anti-war groups loudly protested against our corporate neighbor Lockheed-Martin a year or so ago during the beginning of the Iraq War. (Lockheed-Martin builds some serious weapons.) This is what the protest against Arnold looked like. People held signs with statements like "Public Health, NOT Corporate Wealth," "Kids, Not Cuts," and "No on Prop 76." Two motorcycle cops stood watch from the Yahoo parking lot. And here's some video I shot so you can hear it too. The number of people waiting to see Arnold (all Yahoo! employees) was much much longer. People lined up outside the cafeteria an hour before he was scheduled to speak. It was quickly standing room only and some latecomers were locked outside. Arnold spoke for a little less than an hour, and he didn't say anything too fascinating. He didn't talk about the Internet or technology. He didn't directly address the fact that there were protesters outside, though he did sort of try to refute some of their points about his education cuts. Here is some video of his speech, so you too can feel like you were there (or re-experience it, if you were there). One of the most memorable things he said was "California is the best state in the best country in the world." At least he didn't boast, "California is the only state that touches both Canada and Mexico," as my geographically-challenged Vassar-educated (but usually quite intelligent) friend Mindy once said. ;) Arnold also told us how rich he is, and how we should feel good about having a rich governor, because he can't be bought by special interest groups. Yeah right. No one protested our previous Influentials speakers Thomas Friedman or Tom Brokaw. Then again, neither Friedman nor Brokaw attracted as large an audience of Yahoos either. Still, I don't know whether it's just because Friedman and Brokaw are in the field of writing and journalism that I felt like their speeches meant more to me. I felt interested and inspired by what they had to say. The same was not true of Arnold. It felt like he was at Yahoo just to make another campaign speech and plug his many movies. (He managed to slip the titles of almost all of them into his speech.) Check out my flickr photoset of this strange event. Labels: arnold, california, influentials, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 8:36 PM
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| June 17, 2005 | Make way for ducklings on Yahoo! Campus |
When I arrived at work today a lone female duck was roaming in the middle of the well-manicured grassy quad, quacking non-stop and looking confused. I thought it was a little bit strange. What did she want with Yahoo!? Did she have a usability issue?  Was she having a hard time communicating with our customer care department?An hour later someone heard peeping down a drain hole in the middle of the lawn, and saw a bunch of ducklings trapped down there... Check out my flickr photoset of their rescue. Labels: ducks, photos, rescue, work, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 5:26 PM
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| May 20, 2005 | "You're hired!" as an "Apprentice" Stalker... |
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So, we were in New York and my Yahoo! peeps invited me to attend "The Apprentice" finale and the after-party at Planet Hollywood. (Yahoo! hosts and programs the official "Apprentice" web destination where you can go to find all of the extra behind-the-scenes video clips from the show). I had so much fun running around Planet Hollywood with Chris and meeting/stalking Apprentices. I met Kendra and Tana and Raj and Bill and  George and Carolyn. See all of our photos. It was surprising how easily Chris convinced me to kiss Bren. Omarosa sure can dance... but this photo of Danny may be the funniest. I even met Sugar Ray Leonard. You can tell that we're all BFF. Of course, the best part of the evening is that I got to have dinner with Jeff, Lee, Brett, and Lance beforehand at 5 Ninth in the Meatpacking District. Sure, I enjoy the presence of people from TV, but I enjoy the presence of my friends way more.Labels: apprentice, jeff, lee, nyc, photos posted by Jess Barron @ 5:34 PM
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| March 3, 2005 | Mongoose Posing as Ferret |
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Mindy posted her photos from our trip to St. Thomas the day she got back. It took me a little bit longer, but mine are also now available. We saw whales, wild donkeys, and a mongoose (which I incorrectly identified as a ferret!). Labels: mindy, photos, st thomas, travel posted by Jess Barron @ 12:48 PM
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| March 2, 2005 | Lend Me Some Sugar (Ray). I Am Your Neighbor. |
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After all that smack I talked about Sugar Ray the other day, I hafta admit I had a good time, in spite of myself. The band had a sense of humor about the whole thing, and they put on a fun show. As you can see, Bethany was *thrilled* to be in the front row. Melanie was pulled up onstage. Allyson and Rachana rocked out. We were swooning like tipsy dot-commers from 1999. Eric even rapped onstage with Mark McGrath. I was this close to Mark, but I fell for the bassist. The guitarist gave Melanie his guitar pick, and then we also got the bassist's shoe. (We returned it to him later.) Dear poprocks fans, I'm really sorry if I let you down. I just sometimes can't resist having a really cheesy, silly good time. Your pal, Jess. Labels: band, birthday, photos, sugarray, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 10:42 PM
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| February 18, 2005 | Disappearing is Easy, It's Coming Back That's Hard |
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I took a long-awaited, much-needed highly-anticipated 6-day vacation last week from my job and from the internets, and I can't get (caught back) up! Yes, the rumors are all true, I have returned from visiting my mother and her boyfriend on St. Thomas in the Caribbean. Mindy flew down from NYC to take a vacation with us, so we got to catch up as well. Mindy was just informed that she has been accepted into Carnegie Mellon's Technology and Public Policy Master's program, so I am wicked proud of her. She also posted her photos of our trip, and mine are -- as usual -- yet to come.
(Dedicated She Said, She Said radio listeners are well aware that I have spent many Friday nights on-air cajoling Matt and/or mayor Gavin Newsom to take me out on a Valentine's date.) Well, Wednesday night Matt was escorting a blonde pony-tailed gal who looked a tad too "Marina" for the show's crowd. Matt!? How could you?! I feel so dissed and betrayed! posted by Jess Barron @ 11:09 AM
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| October 14, 2004 | The Good Times Are Killing Me |
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"The good times are killing me. Jaws clenched tight we talked all night, oh but what the hell did we say?" --Modest Mouse, "The Good Times Are Killing Me" Tonight, Friday (Oct 14) from 6-8p.m. Pacific Time I will begin my radio show called "She Said, She Said" (which Allyson might later be joining me in co-hosting -- I have my fingers crossed) on Pirate Cat radio. Tune in tonight on 87.9 FM in San Francisco. You can listen on the web at: http://www.piratecatradio.com/site/listen.html. My show is mostly a talk show about sex, pop culture, and news events, but I will also play some music. Tonight August will be joining me and we'll be playing songs by I Am The World Trade Center (who I started blathering online about back in 2001), the decemberists, Bright Eyes, The Dears, belle & sebastian (of course) and others. Feel free to email me your music/talk topic requests. Also, I will be giving away free tickets to see SoCal devil punks Deep Eynde at El Rio on Sunday Oct 16. Two weekends ago, on October 2nd August and I joined Pirate Cat DJs Monkey Man and Flood Damage, broadcasting live from SF's first-ever Love Parade. Here's a pic of us standing in front of the DJ table. Flood Damage and I interviewed the revellers, and pondered on-air why SF couldn't just have a "Hate Parade"? Here's a pic Mici took of me interviewing a guy on stilts. We asked people to tell us what they hated, and most people just said "George Bush." (We were all wearing t-shirts made by Mici and Monkey that said "I hate George Bush.") A few brave folks gave a bit more colorful answers like "e-tards" and "anti-drug laws." It's funny how when you offer a microphone to people and tell them they can say anything on the air, they will mostly shy away. Here's my photoset from the event. By the way, this Saturday (Oct. 16) from 4-6p.m. PT you should listen to Punkture, hosted by Flood Damage. This week Flood will be interviewing President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (and former-SF-mayorial-candidate and resident hottie), Matt Gonzalez. If you're looking for some uncensored underground political commentary, I recommend you tune in to 87.9 FM in SF. (I will be tuning in online from Boston.) To tune in online, go to http://www.piratecatradio.com/site/listen.html. To see a schedule of all the shows on Pirate Cat radio, go to: http://www.piratecatradio.com/site/dj.html. So, where the hell have I been? Sadly, I had to take a 5-month break from blogging due to tendonitis/repetitive stress injury in my wrists which was really bad due to my crazy work schedule. I did several months of physical therapy on my hands and wrists, and learned that I need to cut-down my daily hours spent at a computer: 14-hours per day just isn't healthy. I remember years ago, reading Justin Hall's post about the dangers of repetitive stress due to coding HTML, but despite blogging and working on the web heavily since 1996, I had honestly never had a problem with my hands until last year. My mom, who is a waitress and florist, had surgery for carpal tunnel on her right hand last December -- and she said it hasn't made her hand 100% better. So, because I make my living through typing and coding and copying and pasting, I need to take care of my damn hands. Of course, I was still working at the computer approximately 10 hours each day for my jobby-job, but in addition to ditching my blog I also cut down on personal emailing and IM-ing whenever I could. (This explains why you haven't heard from me via email or IM in months.) And honestly, there has been more stuff than ever to write about. I've been to a power tools drag race, The Phoenix Festival up in Washington, Simone and David's wedding at Fairytale Land in Oakland (August and I went dressed-up as Alice and the White Rabbit), and we went camping in Yosemite with Owen and Bethany, and much more. My friends have also all been impressing me with all the stuff they've been up to, for instance: * Mindy drove cross-country to move from SF to NYC and is currently spending 30 days travelling with her mom in Croatia. * JP contacted me (after a year spent out-of-touch) and he is living in Texas he sounded like he is doing well. * Esther rode her bike down the coast from Oregon to California, and when she arrived in San Francisco we all partied (a bit too heavily) down at the Zeitgeist. * Missy published a book that was in the Top 10 on Amazon.com for much of the summer. * Lana finished her two-year stint in Teach For America, and found herself a job at an HIV/AIDS outreach center in Houston, TX. * Allyson and Bryan met Dave Mathews (Bryan's all-time favorite musician) while they were working up in Seattle on the Farm Aid show. * Heather and Eugene decided to leave SF and pack-up and move to my favorite city on the East Coast: Providence, Rhode Island. (I loved living there back in 1998, and would seriously consider living there again.) All of their friends in SF were teary-eyed saying goodbye, but August an I might be seeing them this weekend in Providence. (We're flying to Boston on the red-eye tonight after the radio show to visit my mom.) * Jeff spent 2 weeks in France with Lance and Daniel * Andy took a new super-secret job on the Yahoo! Search team. (He can't tell you what it is!) * Jen left Yahoo! (and the financial glory of stock options) to attend a graduate prgram at Berkeley in Information Science. So far, she says it's pretty freakin tough. * Mici is studying like mad for her LSAT test to apply to Law Schools for next year. * Selena and Carlos got engaged * Ellen and Jarrod got engaged * Leanne and John got a kitten * Owen and Bethany decided to get an apartment and move in together. (This means Ric and I will sadly be losing our fabulous housemate, and are now looking for someone to live in our dilapidatad Victorian without any gingerbread. A replacement Owen: a "faux-en," if you will...) And by the way, I haven't eaten anything in three days! After hearing Bryan talk about the two three-day fasts he completed over the past few months, and noticing that he seems so incredibly healthy now -- both Allyson and I decided to try it, and we are both fasting RIGHT NOW. I'm on day 3 of my fast, and I can't believe I've gone three full days without any food or beverages other than water. (The only thing I'm consuming with calories in it is a drink of hot water mixed with two tablespoons of molasses and a fresh-squeezed lemon 3 times per day.) Allyson is on Day 1 of the fast. It's pretty crazy-sounding, but I think it will help us make positive changes in our lives/habits. The caffeine withdrawal was the hardest thing for me. It was terrible. I had a headache behind my eyes for 10 hours yesterday. I couldn't take any painkillers, because I was worried about upsetting my delicate and empty stomach, so I just rode through the pain. But it sure sucked. I'm now considering cutting caffeine out of my diet completely. That might be blasphemy since my workplace (Yahoo! in Sunnyvale) has coffee bars with free lattes and espresso all day long. The three days' of fasting fasting has had rough parts (the caffeine withdrawal, a bit of lightheadedness, and some nausea), but right now I feel FANTASTIC. I'll break my fast with a banana tomorrow morning at 7a.m. ET when I wake up from my red-eye flight from SF to Boston. That's right -- after we finish tonight's radio show, August and Bocce and I are heading to SFO to hop on a plane to Boston to visit my mom. Labels: photos, piratecatradio, radio, sanfrancisco, sf posted by Jess Barron @ 1:11 PM
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| January 28, 2004 | Just Like Laura Palmer... |
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theta444: i watched fire walk with me for the first time last night popvulture: what did you think? theta444: SO GOOD theta444: i never understood how Laura Palmer was able to have 3 or 4 boyfriends, do tons of coke, work as a ho' in a Canadian brothel, win the Miss Twin Peaks pageant, volunteer with Meals on Wheels and everything else, 'till I saw her in action. she reminded me of you a bit ;) I suppose that's just Esther's unique way of pointing out that I always "seem to have a lot going on." Perhaps I should consider writing a book entitled, "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from Twin Peaks." Speaking of which, here are some photos from my decadent 30th birthday party, where there were kisses (and more kisses!), spankings (and more spankings!), and so much champagne (and a serious lack of glasswear in our apartment which prompted ever-innovative Allyson to imbibe the bubbly out of a Pyrex measuring cup). You can also ogle my two hot, hot housemates (we're like "Three's Company" in reverse) and my gorgeous lady friends. Ooooh, I'm such a lucky girl. Labels: davidlynch, esther, laurapalmer, photos, twinpeaks posted by Jess Barron @ 3:53 PM
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| January 9, 2004 | Wood and Fresh Paint |
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"That's all we do, isn't it -- look at things and try new drinks?" -The girl in Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" He talked in his sleep and said, "Mmmmmmm. You smell good -- like wood and fresh paint." Since he's a painter, I took it as a compliment. His eyes never looked as blue and large as when he quickly sketched my portrait in pencil and colored pens as I sprawled naked across his bed last weekend. When he's reading to me or sketching --that's when he looks the most beautiful. I loved the portrait, but he says he's still trying to learn my face. I understand, because I am too and it's been mine for nearly 30 years. Last night I was at the Suicide Girls burlesque show at the Great American Music Hall. The show was sold out, but Missy put Andy, August, and me on the guest list. (Here's my obligatory cell phone camera snapshot of the marquee. No cameras allowed inside. Sorry.) I know, it seems like all I do lately is go to burlesque shows and try new drinks, but really, I do other things too... like makeout with boys and write... and take photos. As you can expect from heavily tattooed goth/punk chicks, The Suicide Girls didn't exactly put on the classical burlesque show. (No, this was not your grandma's burlesque.) I'm telling you, you haven't lived until you've seen six pale girls wearing little frilly g-string underwear and tiny duct tape "X"s over their nipples squirting entire bottles of Hershey's chocolate sauce all over each other and rolling around together on a plastic sheet. If pictchas of girls gettin' it on with each other is what you're into -- you should definitely check out Esther's extremely artful and well-directed Barbie lesbian photoshoot starring Roberta (who you may recognize from our Burning Man camp last year). I'll leave you with an alt-rock album cover photo I took of Selena and August on Tuesday night at Sadie's where we co-opted the jukebox for a solid hour or so. Labels: august, esther, photos, sanfrancisco, sf posted by Jess Barron @ 1:00 PM
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