Hey friends. I wrote a long entry in my classic film blog, Let's Go to the Picture Show. I'd really super double appreciate it if you'd read it and if you are so inclined, lemme know how you think I'm doin'. Oh, and if you know some friends that are in to that kind of geekery, it'd be a big favor to me if you referred them to the blog!

Lots of love,
~Margarita

I love passiveaggressivenotes.com. The notes people write in frustration are so hilarious and interesting to me. I happened to have found a couple of gems right in my own backyard. So while one is pending approval on that site I'm gonna post it here for your amusement.


AAAAH LAUNDRY THEIF ON THE LOOSE! I found this in the window of my laundry mat. While I totally understand that laundry theft is pretty damn annoying and wrong, the creepy tenor of this note still gives me the jibblies.

This is right next to like 4 big huge tags that have been painted next to my front door:

I just love that someone was so disturbed by the graffiti that they had to stop and write it on a sticker and paste it up next to them. Uhgly!

Hey so. If you don't know this about me already, you probably should: I am a bit obsessed with Bewitched. Since I was about 8 or so this show has fascinated me for various reasons. Now I like to think that I picked up on it's queer overtones when I was a young'un, since I know that even back then I was drawn to queer media of all kinds, but I guess I can't be sure. Anyway, this is one of my favorite moments from the series, the first time the conflict of HIPPIE SAMANTHA (actually her doppelganger Serena) was introduced. Yet another threat to Derrin's laced up, uptight ideal of a heteronormative patriarchal nuclear family! There was even a TV guide cover to announce this new threat. And here's the first outlandish bit of hippiedom, The Iffin' Song:

My mother and I went to see Mina Nair’s new movie “The Namesake” based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. I keep trying to write a summary but it isn’t coming easy, and the IMDB summary is offensively inaccurate. So let me try again: It’s about a man and woman from India, and their life after they settle in the United States. The man came to India to find a bride with his parents, she and her parents agreed, and so they left everything behind. They love each other, but it’s hard being in the U.S., so far from their families and their old lives. But they are successful, and they have children, and they decide to stay in the U.S. for their children. The children grow up, and they chafe against the protectiveness of their parents. Mixed in there are Russian literature, classical Indian music and the struggle for immigrant families to balance the culture at home with the American way.

My mom and I basically cried through the whole movie. I knew she would want to see it since our experience is so similar, but neither of us expected it to be so overwhelming. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful movie for me; I saw the optimistic side, all the scenes capturing the joy of life and nature that is mixed in with the pain. My mom found it sadder, but at the same time I think she was reassured at the portrayed power of love, culture and family. I think she felt like it showed me a taste of her life in the early 80s, moving to a lonely new city with no one but my dad. She liked it for that reason, and because she saw it with me, my presence reassuring her that I won’t push her away more than I have to.

Obviously not leather!



"James Dean did show a personal preference for leather jackets. However, contrary to popular belief, the now famous red jacket he wore as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause was in fact a nylon windbreaker."

-everything2.com (link to article)

Also, the Official James Dean Online Store (what?) sells it in cotton. And every "replica" one would care to find is made of cloth.

Settled yet?

You guys, being a grown-up RULES. You can make instant pudding any time you want. ANY TIME. I fear I will go mad with my moderate amount of power.

So, I really want one of these:



But the website doesn’t have a shopping cart or anything, just a link to paypal. So I’m emailing the guy to get an invoice or something.

Another one of my band ideas is taking shape. It’s called Red, Black & White. Some of you will guess what that one is, hehe.

I’m going to go get fake nails with sallysweet tomorrow. Not only will they be beautiful red pointy Norma Shearer nails (JUNGLE RED!) but they will probably act as great picks for my autoharp playing!

Video that made my week: Screaming Jay Hawkins and Serge Gainsbourg get the Constipation Blues:

There's nothing I'd rather be doing on Oscar night than going to see an Altman Double Feature at the Castro theater.

Today I took the train back home from my friend Neda’s house in Palo Alto. I took a route I’ve been dying to see. I went right through my train track thinkin' spot. I love traveling on trains; you see the back of the cities and all the old infrastructure. It was a beautiful clear day for it, and I was serenaded the whole way by June Carter, banjos, guitars and autoharps.

I was coming home from a marvy party at Ned's house. I met lots of cool people, and maybe even some musical collaborators. I got to sing with two piano players. Some Rocanrol and improvisational Pink Floyd type voice acrobatics. Felt good. Good times.

I AM GOING TO BE A TECH ASSISTANT FOR BRUCIO ON THE 27TH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I like this book.

I got it for christmas from my sister. I'm going to write her a nice thank you note inviting her to a party at my place some time.

It's getting me in to a listy/organizy mood which is good because I'm going to New York in a couple of days and IKEA tomorrow. It's also putting me in the mood to throw parties which is also good because enjoy_eggz and I are going to throw a shindig in NYC and I need to plan for my housewarming party too. I'm really getting some good tips and tricks from Amy and trying to imagine exactly how I can invite her to my party which is going to be Sedaris themed. Actually it would be exceedingly creepy to get invited to a party that is your family themed thrown by strangers, and worse, fans. So scratch that, reverse it; I will avoid Amy at all costs.

Have a very squidy holiday!


Art by Mirzu.

The Klaus Nomi post-modern pornographic 80s video of his cover of Marlene Dietrich's signature song "Falling In Love Again(Can't Help It)" is back on youtube!

( CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT BEFORE IT GETS YANKED AGAIN! )

OK SO, after a long day and feeling tired out, I was greeted at home with a package from the ever wonderful Nikole (known internetways as interiority)! Yay for early hand made x-mas gifts! She gave me delicious cookies and a sampler of fancy handmade soaps wrapped in neato orange take out cartons. I TOTALLY NEEDED COOKIES AND SOAP. The cookies got my blood sugar back up, and I’ll put some of that soap in my apartment in case of A SHOWER EMERGENCY. So obviously her presents were beyond perfect and it’s arrival was just what I needed. Thank you, Nikole!

After the cookies I had a banquet that my mom cooked to impress her restauranteur friends and got stuffed to the gills. Then Michelle came over after the guests left and we watched the US office hour long Christmas special, which was stellar as usual. We also saw most of The Unknown, on TCM’s Cult Night with Rob Zombie (hah). The film is a really great Tod Browning/Lon Chaney/Harry Earles movie I got to see at the silent film fest, and I am still in awe of how good that movie is. I hope psychobiddy got to see it and I am eager to hear her thoughts. Especially about the Rob Zombie spiel after the show.

Tomorrow Michelle and I are gonna start the day right with a good breakfast, then I’ll tackle the mess in the living room and re-organize it a bit. I’ll go for a walk around the hood, and maybe to Target for some sewing supplies. I am looking forward to it. Yes.

I’m on a study break from my Blackface/Bamboozled paper. I went out and got the bell hooks book Black Looks and it’s got some really great theory that is unifying my vague ideas. I’m definitely gonna focus on blackface as “eating the other” (homogenizing and eliminating black culture) and establishing stereotypes of black people as inferiors as a way to maintain domination, but also blackface as the only way black performers could work, and how blackface could have been used as subversive satire/cultural critique by black performers within a context that simultaneously re-enforced white supremacy. It’s a tangled web of concepts that I hope I can explain.

Well, back to work for me. Over and out.

HA HA HAHAAAAA I just have to post that vh1 classic is playing that grateful dead video where the band is played by skeleton marionettes dressed in their clothes! I LOVE THIS AND REMEMBER IT FROM MY CHILDHOOD. I was mildly freaked out by it then. Hah, I forgot about the part where the dog runs away with the leg! Nobody careeeees Good tiiiiimes.

What is up with VH1 so thoroughly rocking my world these days?

eta: WTF now they are playing the Pinball Wizard video using live The Who footage? STOP IT VH1 YOU ARE STARTING TO FREAK ME OUT.

I know I have plans on Sunday but I can not for the life of me remember what they are. If you know what they are by some chance PLEASE SAVE ME FROM LOOMING MADNESS and tell me what the hell it is I have to do. I might even reward you with a steaming hot pan of homemade cookies*.THANK YOU.

*Your results will vary. May only be a half eaten box of stale Teddy Grams. Offer void in WI.

ETA: I remembered! I'm hoping to finish painting with this family friend who will do the stencil with me and finish the parts that only a tall person can reach. I'm happy about this because that will mean MAYBE MY BEDROOM WILL BE DONE? So awesome.

i'm late for school (i have to get there like an hour early for parking) because i just discovered "webisodes" of the US The Office. Dastardly!

Who wants to come see Crispin Hellion Glover with me tomorrow night?

Hey all, today is National Coming Out Day, so I wanna let the world know:

I'm a big fat queer! And I mean that all literally. I'm big, I'm fat, and also a queeah, and I revel in it! Don't know what queer is? Good! I don't know the exact definition of my sexuality either! Just means I'm not straight, I don't buy in to the definition of normal that requires biological man with biological woman. Nor do I buy in to the idea that thinness equals health and normality. I think it's really important to be out and be visible so that we can deconstruct an oppressive and contracted idea of what is or should be normal.

Happy National Coming Out Day everyone!

Oliver Sacks, I do believe you were the cutest kid that has ever lived:

"One summer after the war, in Bournemouth, I managed to obtain a very large octopus from a fisherman and kept it in the bath in our hotel room, which I filled with sea water. I would feed it live crabs, which it tore open with its horny beak, and I think it grew quite attached to me. It certainly recognized me when I came into the bathroom, and would flush different colors, indicating its emotion. Although we had had dogs and cats at home, I had never had an animal of my own. Now I had, and I thought my octopus quite as intelligent, and as affectionate, as any dog. I wanted to bring it back to London, give it a home, a huge tank festooned with sea anemones and seaweed, have it as my very own pet.

I did a lot of reading about aquariums and artificial seawater, but in the event, the decision was taken from me, for the day the maid came in, and seeing the octopus in the bath, she had hysterics and poked it, wildly, with a long broom. The octopus, upset, discharged a huge cloud of ink, and when I returned a little later, I found it dead, sprawled out in it’s own ink. I dissected it, sorrowfully, when I got back to London, to learn what I could, and kept it’s scattered remains in formalin in my bedroom for many years.”


That's Oliver probably lighting magnesium. He says he was in love with metals as a boy. He had a deep romance with chemestry.


Excerpt taken from his Autobiography Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.

( Cab Calloway was the Prince of his day, I tells ya! )

Two great things:

1)I'm DJing for the very first time at Heavy Rotation, Friday night from 10-2 at El Rio in San Francisco! I'm DJ Saraghina. I'll be playing an R&B, Rock 'n' Roll and New Wave. Hopefully there won't be too many slow intros or gaps between songs.

2) The wondrous Caroline (psychobiddy) has given me the "Hook Up" to two pretty rare and expensive* Klaus Nomi records in digitized form. She saved my prissy behind. Just what I needed to round out my setlist. And eff all you player haters, I'm playing Lightning Strikes at full volume (you know you love it)!

*Well, I thought they were rare and expensive since in my late night searches last week for his recorded material I could only find one album and it was priced at $35 dollars but now it seems to be in stock again. Along with a lot of exciting stuff I've never heard of.

OK, I decided I had to see how the rasterbation mentioned in my previous post would look, so I made a mock-up in photoshop.

( It's big, so it's going behind a cut. )

I think I'm gonna make it smaller, probably 5 sheets across instead of 6.