one of my favorite places

conversation by ai

this is one of my favorite poems ever and ill just keep on reposting it forever. written by ai (1947-2010).

Conversation

We smile at each other and I lean back against the wicker couch. How does it feel to be dead? I say. You touch my knees with your blue fingers. And when you open your mouth, a ball of yellow light falls to the floor and burns a hole through it. Don't tell me, I say. I don't want to hear. Did you ever, you start, wear a certain kind of dress and just by accident, so inconsequential you barely notice it, your fingers graze that dress and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper, you see it too and you realize how that image is simply the extension of another image, that your own life is a chain of words that one day will snap. Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands, and beginning to rise heavenward in their confirmation dresses, like white helium balloons, the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning, and above all that, that's where I'm floating, and that's what it's like only ten times clearer, ten times more horrible. Could anyone alive survive it?

count down

stairway

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway to heaven
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thought process

thinking about:

work. cheap vegetables. cheap wine. bright lights. bridges. big waves. big trees. roadtrips. childhood. birthmarks. cigarettes. sex. backyards. rooftops. beaches. paris. barcelona. amsterdam. venice. morocco. rome. valencia. alicante. bilbao. berlin. ibiza. tucson. brazil. birthdays. business plans. parents. brothers. camping. fresh coffee grinds. fresh flowers. electricity. mold. stars. dust. skin. curly hair. love. intelligence. profanity. addiction. forgiveness. education. tattoos. taboos. bug bites. compassion. english. french. spanish. weed. alcohol. dancing. standing still. standing up. falling down. laying around. walking in. running out. trains. wednesdays. june. july. august. peace and chaos.

back to brooklyn

this place feels far away. i spent my first five days here basking in the brooklyn sunlight, walking next to the bridge and under the trees and its been pretty god damn beautiful. i feel quite lost in a literal sense, these streets seem unrecognizable and i've only been gone two years. last night i was walking in what i believed to be a general direction towards home and i felt so tired and confused and misplaced (even though, mind you, i was two blocks from an apartment i lived in for two fast years) that i hopped in a cab and spent half the money that i was eagerly saving to buy myself a pack of cigarettes on a ride home. i miss the perfect cafe con leches of barcelona from the bartender at cafe ke with victor but they have been replaced by a mini-everything bagel toasted with jalapeno cream cheese (sounds gross, but a habit is a habit) and an iced coffee with milk and one sugar.

my brother drives me across the williamsburg bridge on his 1967 honda motorcycle and although we are wearing speed racer helmets i feel like i could be an actress in an old french film with the cigarette dangling from my lips and my hair blowing in the wind as the city skyline whirls past us.

i passed an small old lady in the street today on 7th avenue in manhattan and i asked if i could take a picture of her in her dark grey bowler hat and thick tortoise glasses and as she kindly declined she explained to me the only reason she was wearing the hat is that she has such a small head and has been looked for years for a new hat but never found one that fit. ah, isn't life just like that. i still took a picture of her but from behind as she slowly walked ahead from where i stood.

when we were walking to get lunch today we witnessed a dog who had gotten hit by a taxi. there were three people huddled over the dog on the sidewalk and there was blood and panic and we crossed the street without even looking up to not have to bear witness to the tragedy.

showers never feel as good as they do here as they wash all of the dirt and grime of new york city off your body swirling peacefully down the drain to the sewers beneath.

i think everyday about the fact that new york, or more specifically, brooklyn, is like no other place in the world and nor will it ever be. more on that later.

ibiza love

ten perfect days camping in the north of ibiza............

tent love

tumblr

just for photo fun:

laurenauerbach.tumblr.com

brasil 2010

last night victor told me he would make part of the jungle.

and i pretty much imagined it like the part in avatar when she paints the guy with mud from the magic forest and then everything starts to glow neon colors around them.

it better happen exactly like it.

oh brasil! plans are in the works!

hay amor aqui

its summer again and there are so many things i need to do.

last summer it was different, there was no time. no clocks no watches, just the sun spinning around us in circles making us dizzy from each other's company day after day. the nights are the same, long, hot and full of love mixed with wine, beer and thick foggy smoke from cigarettes and joints. less bars and more barbecues on our bright blue terrace. victor and i spent two weeks sleeping in a tent on the terrace. the crying seagulls would keep us up until the early morning when the sun would start to rise and remind us that we must sleep. ahh must we sleep? then we would wake up in a hot sweat from the sun pouring into our tent and remove whatever clothes we still had on in order to feel a fresh breeze on our sticky bodies. at the beach, the salt water stings my freshly shaved legs as i float in the ocean. the sky is such a pure blue. the water at barceloneta is cleaner today than it was yesterday but the sun is so hot it burns our backs. i want to go back to Cadaqués.

we are camping in ibiza and formentera for a week in august. it will be my first time to an island besides manhattan. and my first time camping. i just want to play like a hippie and swim naked and run around barefoot. maybe just one night dancing ourselves crazy to some techno-house music at some overpriced and overrated (or maybe not?) ibiza nightclub. i need to get an underwater disposable camera for those clearer and bluer than i've ever seen mediterranean waters! can't wait!

work II

one year

its officially been one year since i met you, barcelona

thank you for helping find the way

you are the city for me!

what if your world should fall apart

Modafad SUB metro runway

the latest work from barcelona

most listened to this month

seabear - cold summer

the national - terrible love

groove armada - look me in the eye sister

viva voce - octavio

the very best - yalira

dag for dag - pirate sea

sunset rubdown - idiot heart

delorean - real love

animal collective - what would i want? sky

bloodgroup - my arms

hot chip - take it in

twin sister - all around and away we go (teen daze remix)

caribou - sandy

seabear - wolfboy

surfer blood - harmonix

lcd soundsystem - i can change

brian eno - this

i wish i was at primavera sound right now wathcing the pixies and yeasayer!! going to try and jump the fence tomorrow so hopefully an evil spanish police officer wont taser me...

may day

rainbow love

zonza and raffa are the rainbow warriors. these boys have more cosmic energy together than any other two people that i know. i met them my first night in barcelona, june 28th 2009, while they provided the groovy tunes and doo wop melodies to one of the best nights i've had in years. hidden behind their long dark sardinian curls they decorate their dj stand with toys and tools of all kinds from the infamous ET (once stolen and graciously returned) to zoos of miniature animals, vines of flowers, sirens, plastic glasses, and more. zonza even keeps a full body skeleton suit hanging in his room for those crucial 'need a full body spandex skeleton suit' moments. (you know those moments exist...)

in august before i really knew them i was lucky enough to live in the same apartment with them for a week. one night before they played at plastico bar i witnessed their magic in the comfort of their own dining room. they had cooked themselves a hearty italian pasta dinner and armed with a fresh baguette and cold beer they sat and discussed their inspirations for the music for the night ahead of them with such concentration they could have been rocket scientists. together their creative force is mighty inspirational.

now raffa is galavanting around london with his perfect little swedish ginger girlfriend frida (come back!!) while zonza is still here providing us with his magical music selections at various locations around the barcelona night scene.

for a taste of what they do, download the following mix courtesy of raffa himself.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=66EVA4PJ

sky scrapings & sus rizos magnificos