i found the f.

i slept at my parent's house last night in newport news (as i'm in between homes currently), and was floored by the amount of sound contained in such a small place. norfolk is a fairly large city. true, the bulk of its action-centers are pretty contained within themselves - like ghent, downtown, larchmont, etc... but aside from the constant sirens and incessant chirping of birds, what other noises are there? i pulled up in front of my parent's house at around 10 p.m. getting out of the car, all i could hear were the sounds of locusts and other bugs. it was nearly deafening, but so pretty.

it reminded me of a trip i took to just-a-little-bit beyond gloucester a couple of years ago with my friend c3. we went to eat dinner with her grandparents on the water. we enjoyed a huge vegetarian dinner, made with vegetables they'd grown in the garden by the house, then sat on the porch for some wine. leaving, c3 and i stopped on a dirt path and found ourselves surrounded by lightning bugs. just tiny little points of light in every direction, flashing and sending their message: "here i am. let's get it on."

though i love norfolk, i miss moments like those. getting caught up in things like promotions, music, other people's lives and just trying to establish yourself leaves little time for those very real moments of actual life. i'm most pleased about the fact that i'm moving back to ghent because it will afford me more time to enjoy my surroundings. my social hot-spots are mostly right there around the corner from my house, and having that center will allow me to calm down every now and then and just listen. exciting.

so now that i'm in full on apartment mode, i've been checking out things to fill the space with (even more than last week, pre-apartment-debaucle number 1). i want to start cooking again, especially things like fake cheeses, since i'm adamant about going vegan again. so, i've cheated a little bit and thrown in a food processor up there because the actual product name starts with an "f". i found the f, and it sounded a lot like broadcast piping through my fabulous ghent apartment.

1. fabian unternahrer. yeah, dude. i found this german-born photographer through another photography blog, and was floored by his approach. with the exception of the personified-animals i chose to showcase, he focuses a lot of time and attention to shadows, to light, to every day significance. he works with the generally surreal, but it takes a real artist to be able to capture every day events and portray them as something beautiful. his work is absolutely breathtaking. check him out at www.fu-photo.ch. 2. set of 2 branch hooks. "f"or the apartment. wow, i'm cheating a lot on this letter. i used to have two metal branch hooks in my old apartment, but i've sort of grown tired of them. these are an upgrade, most definitely. i'm not even sure i'd use them for anything, but just having them on the wall would make me feel more thoreaux-like, i think. 3. cuisinart food processor. the last time i was in california, i finally made it to real food daily. if you haven't eaten there, it's incredible. one of the only all-vegan restaurants that i consider mainstream because the food isn't "weird" and doesn't try to be any different than say a panera or baker's crust. it's still high-end, most definitely. but it is what it is - real food, daily. my favorite is the seitan club, stacked high with crispy chicken-style seitan and decked out with cashew cheddar "cheese", lettuce, avocado, tomato and of course, lots of ketchup. i've been aching to make the real food daily cashew cheddar cheese from their incredible cookbook for at least 2 years - but i've been lazy about getting a food processor to do it the right way. i will be asking for one of these for christmas i think. oh, you want the recipe for cashew cheddar cheese? i'm sure you do, because it's just as versatile as real cheese, tastes better and isn't laden with the guilt of the dairy industry. click here for goodness. 4. fuck buttons "street horrrsing". sweet love for mother earth seems to be a bit of theme for this post. and i've also got sweet love for this album. each lengthy track takes elements from ambient, noise, post-punk and prog-rock and wraps it all up in interesting and, most importantly, very well executed compositions. pitchfork and i rarely agree on "best new music", but they got it right with this one. the british duo can be found on ATP Records, and will be on tour with Mogwai this coming september.

you're invited to my housewarming party.