view from the top [that chick from elephant is fucking hot]

My fondness for summer is a new thing... the result of a large pop art collage of memory fragments - barbecues and beaches, nine p.m. sunsets and three p.m. cocktails, fireworks and friendships... jazzy jeff's chef d'oeuvre rolling on, playing basketball for hours at the park, then laying in the grass while sipping forties of mickeys and staring down onto the bosque del apache. sergio's annual party to celebrate the end of finals and kick of two months of lazy days - bianca's forty-five second kegstand, and rick getting t'wasted and blasting his 9mm into the sky. showing up at bianca's house for some donkey kong and a late-night jacuzzi sesh, hoping to hook up with a pretty girl, instead falling in love with the girl of my dreams.

amanda's birthday to mark the climax of the summer each year, followed by the restlessness of shorter days mixed with the anticipation of a new school year.

leaving college for the summer after freshman year was a heartbreaking experience. i had made friends that i would cherish forever and i knew, as i walked away from century that last time, that we would never be together again. I arrived in new mexico, but it was no longer home... it was a strange atmopshere - we didn't drink because it was fun, we drank because it was expected. mom & dad's pretty backyard and lush emerald parks were replaced with dingy upstairs apartments and sticky frat houses, and kids were too busy chasing cocaine fairies or squabbling with their outsider girlfriends/boyfriends to kick back and hang out. A few day dates and a bit of catharsis, but not the same...

summers seemed to get shorter and less eventful - there was the chabak summer, which was really strange, and the journey to the center of the earth, where i charged an entire summer worth of substance, remorse, and pain into a single evening before the summer even began. it's a gift. but even that afternoon as i kinda premeditated the evening that would change my life, I cruised across town with a smile on my face... arm out the window cholo style, echo park to hollywood to westwood, blasting the mixtape i had just created of songs from The OC, the tingle of angst and adrenaline causing me to shiver in the 85 degree sunlight as I imagined what the night had in store - i didn't know what was going to happen, but i knew everything would be different the next time i saw the sun set. the summer was over before first snowflake of the season.

last summer didn't seem to exist. a lot of the beauty of lazy summer days is the anticipation of the next [academic] year... or maybe more specifically the comfort in being able to kick back because you know that august will bring something new and exciting. when you're not in school anymore, you don't have that security (nor that three month break... and there's really nothing worse than spending those long summer afternoons in a cold fluorescent building, leaving work as the sun's setting if you're lucky).

two things defined last summer. big japan was a really fun night with very special people... getting to hang out, have a few drinks and a long dinner before seeing a really terrible concert, but having a lot of fun. and the basquiat opening the next week was the most fun i've ever had at a museum... a long summer night with one of my favorite artists, a legendary dj, a sea of seemingly happy people, and the most important person to me in the entire world... most importantly, no da-raa-ma! it doesn't get better than that. it couldn't.

things have been a lil slow lately, but i'm excited for this summer. i hope there are many more basquait and big japans this summer! k-i-t, and don't forget to sign my yearbook!

kissies