Rapid City, South Dakotee

well folks. i made it. here to beautiful south dakota. who knew. that i'd be living in south dakota. may i just say that it is REALLY under-rated. this place is awesome. there is so much to do. so much to see, so much to experience here. 

for those of you that don't know, i moved here for six months to fulfill my internship/practicum for graduate school. I am getting my masters in Conflict Transformation. and I've had a strong desire to serve the Native American population of the US. as Americans, we forget that there is SO much work and service that needs to be done on our own soil. we think we need to go abroad, somewhere exotic...we don't. not that its bad to do that, but come on people. there is SO much work that needs to happen here in the US. so much change needs to happen!

I am working for SANI-T (the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests - Today) and the Restorative Justice org. here in Rapid. I am really really stoked about this opportunity. I will be facilitating dialogues between the Native pop. and the Rapid City comm., doing reconciliation and mediation work as well as all around using my Masters degree to best help serve this community. 

this work is going to be fruitful, but also extremely challenging; the racism here is extremely overt. and very painful to see...

Rapid City is amazing. well, south dakota is. i have slowly been taking pics. but until then, allow me to highlight some of the best highlights of my trip so far (without images, i know, i'm sorry, for those of you that love photos, as i do too):

1. a man in the mall with long thinning hair wearing a suede leather fringe jacket.  the fringe went ALL the way around his jacket. and he walked with his shoulders REALLY swinging. so you can only image how amazing the fringe looked; bouncing all over the place, swinging almost parallel to the ground he was strutting on. CLASSIC. Credence clearwater revival was blasting in the mall hallways. but the BEST part is that he was talking on a razor phone that had a BEDAZZLED phone jacket. so it was all pretty and sparkly. the BEST EVER.

2.  a van  with mickey mouse spraypainted on the side of it. (it was really bad)

3. a billboard that says, "Manage your wildlife: wear fur!" (wow. seriously?)

4.  my "landlord" talking on his phone (a truly amazing, wonderful, elderly Baha'i man) saying, "i like to think tears are like angels, expressing what words cannot."

5.  how lame mount rushmore is.

that's it for now, i will most def. take more pics so that i can do a whole blog post on the area that i'll be living in...

i cant help but think i can really see myself living here for a while...i hope baktash likes it. ;) 

SONGS I'VE LISTENING TO OVER + OVER :

1. "CAPE CANAVERAL" - CONOR OBERST

2. "BRAINY" - THE NATIONAL

3. "HOW DEEP IS THAT RIVER" - MASON JENNINGS

XOXO.

if you don't know, now you know...

hip-hop-hooray! for agavay!!

 i must say, agave is my most favorite little treasure treat in the whole world. its way better than sugar and way sweeter and way better for you! the reason i am posting a whole blog entry on agave nectar is because, well, basically it is the best alternative to sugar out there. it tastes like brown sugar. and it was on sale today at the co-op so i stocked up for my move to S. Dakotee which happens on thursday...who knows if they have agave out there. and i cant live without it. so i bought four bottles. hee hee! i bring a bottle with me in my purse, for my coffee and teas...yummy.

 

p.s. this will be the last of my geeky blog posts. lord knows i aint no geek. this is just all something i thought you should become acquainted with. no apologies. 

p.s.s. and as for the underlining, don't ask me, i am not techie genius. 

PLEASE president bush, fix the economy & oil prices!!!...for Diddy...

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT DIDDY HAS A VIDEO BLOG?? WOW. i ask myself every minute: WHAT THE HECK DID I DO BEFORE I KNEW DIDDY HAD A VIDEO BLOG?? i mean COME ON, what did we all do before diddy had a vid. blog??? dont you think that we will all be better human beings if we subscribe to his blog??? oh well, i am totally going to subscribe to it. i mean, come on, that guy is a walking comedian/genius. 

i must say, this was too funny to pass up. take note of the part where Diddy makes a shout out to his "Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters", etc. it is pretty amazingly priceless. i usually dont put swears on my blog, and i may delete it soon, but for those of you that read my blog frequently, i didn't want you to miss out on this ridiculousness. i cannot accurately put into words my feelings on this clip, it is kinda beyond genius it is so bad. it is so bad that it is hilarious. this youtube clip was supposed to be removed from youtube, and it hasn't been yet, so count yerself as luckyducky.




Diddy should follow suit:

(image taken from superbomba)

tell me, my dear two readers, did you:

1. like this clip?

2. LOVE this clip?

3. HATE this clip?

4. get angry at this clip?

5. wish i hadn't posted this clip?

6. thank me for the rest of your life and give me your first million dollars clip?

love love and more love.

p.s. man that made my day, my month, possibly the best blog post ever. 

its bound to melt your heart...

mr. larry robinson. 

baktash and i were running down the beach, chasing waves and i saw this gentleman standing so peacefully and watching the waves and taking it all in. my heart kind of sank, because i wondered if he was lonely and wishes he had someone to share the moment with. so i ran up to him and asked if i could take his portrait as a way of talking to him. he was so so so wonderful and we talked for 20 minutes while baktash beachcombed. his was the kindest, most loving and wonderful gentleman. i need to do things like that more often. i think we all do. you never know how lonely people can be sometimes and how much it might make a difference to go show love to a total stranger. it made my heart feel good. 

p.s. his trucker hat said "home is where you park it" with a drawing of an RV. totally rad.

introducing: bakattack (!!!)

well some of you may already know that my man is an extremely talented "human bean" (coined by my lovely sister in law: shirin sahba moore), but if you knew it and didn't KNOW it, here is a preview of some of his work, which i may add, is mostly adhoc.

take a peek:



and if you'd like more, go to his NEW myspace music page!!!! WOOHOO!! IT ROX!! ITS RAD!! i know myspace is basically low class garbage at this point, but it is still good for music. (and ladies and gents who want to hook up in a gross, dirty way)

p.s. when you go to his myspace page, you can even hear a song featuring yours truly, samimi-extremie. its titled "valium", we made it in one take, freestyling if you will, while i was setting the table for dinner...

i am now back in minneapolis, heading to s. dakota in a week.

i miss my bakattack.
(and my banjo)

♥

some tasty morsels from my time in Cali.

to my two dear readers:

i didn't bring my digital cam to LA because i thought i would just use baktash's. well, it broke after the 2nd day of me being here. and i forgot my polaroid. so here are the fisheye photos from my trip. well, atleast some of them. you can go to my FLICKR if you want to see them all! i hope you're all doing well and enjoying the last days of summer...xoxoxo.

 

bollywood + dee.oh.dubba.gee = reedickulously fantastic.

i would like to dedicate this to my new nephew Na'im Maxwell Piff!! He's one day old today!!! ♥

keep an eye out for snoop's bangle earring...i simply cannot believe this video.



p.s. big ups to banjo/elise for showing me this video.

tee hee hee

yay for LA-ay.

ok. so i'm off to LA to see my man and my buddies. i can't wait. i get to see baktash, elise, ellie (AND HER BABY!!!), theresa, umra (madeek), hun, burt, etc., etc. i'll keep you posted...

polaroid portraits of my dear grad school buddies.

i miss the bejeezus outta these folks, specifically, but not limited to... :

HUN - representing Cambodia + Socal:
THERESA - representing LA + St. Louis:FARAH -- repping New Mexico:KYA -- repping Japan + Korea:(his highness) ROLAND -- repping Cameroon: SEEMA -- repping Bahrain:

TERU & ASMI -- repping Japan + DRC, respectively:

KNOWLES - representing Maine:JEAN D'ARC -- repping Rwanda + the Congo:JON -- repping Illinois:

KYA + FARAH:

I obviously couldn't get (or afford) to take everyone's portrait, I wish I could have taken them all...cool, eh??

♥

the brother - sister photoshoot.

yep. basically that's it. jorma and i went on a photoshoot in minneapolis/st. paul this past weekend. here are some of the greats:

thanks for taking a peek. isn't the fisheye so neat? what about the warehouse face? what about the neon green windows? what about my scary bandit face?? heh, heh. i miss you, friends.

p.s. i might be moving to south dakota. (YES!!! MORE SOON...)

ooooooooooh fun!!

totally love this comic (marriedtothesea.com). totally speaks to me as a photographer (and a comedian). great, right???

some of my friends deserve a big pat on their back(s).

so we all love portland (oregon, not maine!) and i used to live there in 2006. THE BEST coffee shop in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD has one of their cafes on belmont ave. I used to frequent that cafe ATLEAST once a day, and would always have to pass by this really offensive shop called the "dixie mattress company". on each side of the sign/banner, they have confederate flags. see what some of my friends did that caused alot of talk in that cute little city:



thanks to m for the coming up with the idea. thanks to t & j for making this vid.

kind note: if you haven't ever experienced the awesomeness that is STUMPTOWN, you must get over there and get a latte with extra foam. i dont think there is anything better in the whole world. really, i dont.

i have a bone to pick with all ya'll cowardly "anonymous" samimi-extremie blog commenters.

seriously dudes, do you have to leave rude and downright mean comments on my blog AND then leave yourself anonymous? get me straight-- i am all for people saying how they feel, what they think of my blog entries, as far as i'm concerned, i like honesty and i encourage it. but if you're gonna do it, and be mean or critical about it, identify yourselves, you cowards. honestly!

so this is how its gonna go down -- if you hate one of my blog entries and you leave your comment anonymous, i'm gonna trash it. but if you say who you are, where you're from, then i'll keep it. until then, you are wasting your time commenting, b/c samimi-extremie thoroughly dislikes a coward + will delete the heck out of your comment.

so if you do it again, i'll sick this guys on yer trail:

( i quite like this photo set. it is actually really hilarious and i never would have thought to put them all together like this! cool! )

and for you other darling readers whom i love and adore, thank you for your comments, your love, your support. we've had such good times together. we've laughed, we've cried, we've gotten upset. thanks for sticking with me, my two readers.

i love my blog readers, dont get me wrong. i really love you guys.

♥

lay

one more disclaimer: if i DONT know you and you leave me a creepy, strange comment, and you just give me your first name, and i still dont know who you are, i'll delete you. i mean, lets be honest here, this blog is mostly for my buddies, my cyber buddies and my future buddies and cyber buddies.