[Exodus by Kim Herbst]

The Times defines an addiction as compulsive, self-destructive behavior. I don’t know too many people who have/would admit to having an addiction. The word is generally reserved for stigmatized things like drugs or gambling, while other equally destructive yet “normal” things are called habits or guilty pleasures.  Apparently some of us are more prone to addiction than others. A few qualities of the addictive personality:

• Impulsive behavior, difficulty in delaying gratification, an antisocial personality and a disposition toward sensation seeking.
• A high value on nonconformity combined with a weak commitment to the goals for achievement valued by the society.
• A sense of social alienation and a general tolerance for deviance.
• A sense of heightened stress. This may help explain why adolescence and other stressful transition periods are often associated with the most severe drug and alcohol problems.

So what makes something an addiction versus an unhealthy habit or hobby? More than the drug of choice– whether that be alcohol, sex, exercise, television, or donuts– is the question of how and why you do it. It usually starts out innocently enough. Say you really really like donuts cos they taste so damn good, plus they help you through a rough patch in your life (donuts have many powers).  But then it starts to snowball. Your compulsive love for donuts creeps into your relationships, your interests, and your goals. Like you don’t really want to kick it with friends and fam anymore cos you’d rather be eating donuts. The donuts are giving you high cholesterol and perpetually sticky fingers but you don’t give a damn cos you just really really want donuts. You lose your chance at that job you really wanted cos you were so distracted by donuts, and to ease the burn you eat more donuts.

It’s sorta a ridiculous analogy, but it’s the only way I know how to put it without getting too um.. real. So an addiction becomes an addiction when it becomes a causer of severe, negative life imbalance. It starts to take away from the things in your life that once made you happy, then ends up aggravating itself by a growing feeling of powerlessness and discontent. I’m probably working too hard to avoid being specific that this doesn’t make much sense at all, but hopefully you get my drift. In the end it’s not really up to anyone else to let you know that you have problems. Who the hell doesn’t?? It’s more about admitting it if something that was once good has become destructive– and figuring out how to dig yourself out of that hole.

I read this passage last year and it’s never felt more appropriate.

AN ADDICTION (A REPETITIOUS ACT) IS A RITUAL TO HELP ONE THROUGH A TRYING TIME; ITS REPETITION SAFEGUARDS THE PASSAGE, IT BECOMES ONE’S TALISMAN, ONE’S TOUCHSTONE. IF IT STICKS AROUND AFTER HAVING OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS, WE BECOME “STUCK” IN IT AND IT TAKES POSSESSION OF US. [gloria anzaldua]

Amazing illustrations by Igor Oleinikov for the children’s mag Tramvai.  Feast your eyes on the awesomeness.

Via English Russia.

Yoko Furusho’s artwork is the sum of several quiet contradictions. It’s intimate enough to be satisfyingly voyeuristic, surreal enough to be creepishly detached, and girly enough for the big boys to feel at ease. She presented her work a few weeks ago at Alien/ation, a group show organized by Hyphen Magazine and Paper Hat Productions.

I pride myself on having awesome friends, and I have this particularly heroic friend named Shannon. I think the photo speaks for itself. 100% goodness, snapped and edited by myself (sorry, I needed to brag).

Shannon is an artiste slash model currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. She’s modeled for Caliber 59 and Maximilian Fur Salon.  In addition to being really really ridiculously good-looking, she’s got a fierce body of work. She also rescues puppies in her off time. Check out her blog for more.

If I were to attempt to sum up this beautiful video and all the feelings that it encapsulates in my own words, it is very likely that I would embarrass you and myself with an unacceptably high dosage of cheesy, irrelevant rambling… Soo as put by Brain Pickings, cos they said it so well:

New York is a slow love. Beyond its typical emotional roller coaster — a target of all the world’s tourist lust, from the intense infatuation of the infrequent visitor to the quick disillusionment of the recent transplant — lies a rich and beautiful middle, a neverland between the black and white not grey but vibrant and colorful and magnificently enchanted, that over time swells into a powerful attachment.

That slow New York love blossoms when you cease trying to live the city as it should be and surrender to it as it is. When you embrace its uncontrollability and take comfort in its chaos, its whisper in your ear, its breath on your skin, its heartbeat in your heart. When you let the city grow on you and, in the process, you let yourself grow with it.

Here’s to New York, its vibrant neverland between infatuation and disillusionment, its allure of surrender, its promise of growth and, above all, its slow love.

Like the feeling described above, the video builds up slowly.  It’s well worth the 30 minutes out of your life to just kick back and let yourself drown in a maze of color, sound, and movement. Oh and the music on these videos is the $hit. Also, that’s gonna be me casually strolling the Brooklyn Bridge in one week.