SUBBACULTCHA

GOODBYE BLOGSPOT

2010-12-20T00:40:00.001-06:00

...HELLO TUMBLR

http://jalekseyeva.tumblr.com/

I have moved. If not permanently, then semi-permanently!

Daily Dose of Beauty, October Edition

2010-10-17T23:07:00.007-05:00

I'm growing less and less fond of the whole review-everything-you-encounter attitude of the blog, so I might be veering towards more autobiographical and random stuff for a while, at least until I make my transition to tumbler... probably in the next two months or so.

Until then, some cool stuff:

1. Apparently this is a coffee shop in Bryant Park called D'Espresso. How cool! Those are very photorealistic tiles, not actual books, but it certainly gives me an idea for future decor.

2. Awesome!

3. Newly-discovered favorite webcomic Hark A Vagrant (gives me great ideas for when I start my own... someday...) My two favorites:

Bahahah Byron.

My Life v. PhD Comics

2010-10-04T20:44:00.004-05:00

How, 1.2 months into my graduate career, my life already mimics PhD Comics.

I MADE A PIE

2010-10-01T00:29:00.004-05:00

Well, my roommate mostly made it. Ok, it was like, 2/5 versus 3/5 effort. But seriously, this was the best pie ever. So pictures are, of course, necessary. Since coming to grad school I've had more time on my hands than expected, so I'm also taking a dance class, biking around, in a film studies workshop, and have time to cook for myself for once. But wow, this Apple Pie.

Hooray fall!

Pre-bake:

Mid-bake:

Post-bake:

Ooooh yeah. It was that good. Served with vanilla ice cream! (Edy's, of course)

New favorite Summer/Fall 2010 movie!

2010-09-26T09:18:00.003-05:00

Teen comedies. I love them. So much. Almost as much as a detest rom-coms. But Teen Comedies (and the best of the Apatow posse) usually end up 5-starred on Netflix. Why? It's perfect entertainment. Sharp, witty satire, usually surprisingly good cinematography. Easy A was one of these movies. The top critics almost unanimously loved this movie, while the audience was more hesitant (96% versus 85% on rottentomatoes, last time I checked). Why this slight, but still statistically significant, difference? Easy A was a meta-film, constantly referring to every other teen comedy that inspired director Will Gluck. At one point Olive Pendergast (Emma Stone, definitely one of my favorite teen heroines.) even says, emphatically, "I wish my life were an 80s movie. But I am not John Hughes." Following this statement, and dispersed liberally throughout the film, are very non-discreet references to other 80s movies-- Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, Pretty in Pink, and, especially, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. (I won't add a spoiler describing the brave and incredible way in which Emma Stone gets her own Ferris Bueller moment!)

In fact, Easy A seems like an improvement or every other great teen dramedy. The characters (perhaps excepting Amanda Bynes's bible-freak cheeseball character) are complex, interesting people, in the same way that they are in Apatow films at their best. Except this time, it's a female who has the most interesting personality-- caustic, witty, and nonchalant, with a gruff voice and perfect comic timing. And very realistic-- I have friends like Emma Stone to this day, and I certainly had friends clever enough to be Emma Stone in high school. I'm glad to see teenagers portrayed as self-aware and adultlike, rather than broody, stupid, and schizoid.

What can I say? Maybe I have bad taste. Maybe I'll secretly always be an angsty 15-year old. Or maybe I just know a pretty great movie when I see it. Watch and see for yourself (especially if you're a John Hughes-o-phile). SO MUCH RECOMMENDED.

p.s. another reason to see this film: lit references. LOTS OF THEM. Get ready to remember reading The Scarlet Letter senior year of high school, and liking it. Prepare for nostalgia!

Daily Dose of Beauty, Rainy Day Edition

2010-09-17T17:47:00.009-05:00

1. Raining in Boston and I'm feeling lazy. Watching this movie on cable. One of my absolute favorites! Now, there are movies you 5-star on Netflix out of sheer guilt, and then there are favorites, and this film is definitely the latter:

Sweet Smell of Success, 1957. Best dialogue of any film that I've ever seen.

2. Not sure where this is from; found it randomly inserted in a street style website:

3. Sanrio + Doc Marteens collaboration? Yes please! (I want these shoes)

4. I am in love with this-- the idea of vines indoors, framing a doorway. Might do that myself! This is from another street style website. Once again, I forget which. Next time I should write the sources down, it would certainly help with some sort of copyright infringement.

Also, I'm considering switching to Tumblr because the picture quality and editing process in blogspot is a little wonky. Any suggestions, please let me know.

Later days,

Secret Fashion Icon

2010-09-12T22:28:00.003-05:00

Scout, from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

-Overalls

-Plaid shirt

-Converse high-tops

-Short hair

No wonder my guy friends say I dress in lesbian-chic!

Regardless, I am UNASHAMED about my love of overalls. Ideally I would like to buy a grown-up, fitted pair (rather than the Osh Kosh B'Gosh ones that are a *male* youth size XXL, bought for $3 from a Chicago thrift store)... but alas, must wait for ideal circumstances (also known as my next paycheck!).

p.s. Gregory Peck? Preeetty handsome. Mmmhm.

Movies We Live With

2010-09-05T19:10:00.003-05:00

I started off detesting my film class, but I've realized that there's no reason silently seething in the second row, refusing to do unnecessary assignments and unconsciously hating all the readings when I do them, when I could instead try to find ways to enjoy it. So I spent the weekend reading Michel de Certeau's The Writing of History, which only gets good in the 8th and 9th chapters, and began to start liking it. And then, just a few minutes ago, upon watching The Sound of Music for, oh, probably the thousandth time, I remembered something Professor Conley said about "living with" films, and how there are films, and films we live with, that we watch tens, hundreds of times, films we've seen often or which have just had a remarkable impression, etc. It made sense to me, and it especially makes sense now, sitting on the couch, watching a movie that never fails to arrest my attention for its full 174 minutes.

So, I present:

MOVIES I LIVE WITH

*: definitely seen over 10 times

**: definitely seen over 30 times

The Sound of Music, 1965**

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971

Breathless (A bout de souffle), 1960

Contempt, 1963

Grease, 1978

Citizen Kane, 1941

The Godfather, 1972

Juno, 2007

Trainspotting, 1996*

Matilda, 1996**

Forrest Gump, 1994**

Hans Christian Andersen, 1952

Gattaca, 1997

Pink Floyd's The Wall, 1982

Fight Club, 1999

Hook, 1991*

Tootsie, 1982

Doctor Zhivago, 1965**

Office Space, 1999

Mary Poppins, 1964*

The 40-Year Old Virgin, 2005

Amelie, 2001**

American Beauty, 1999

The Big Lebowski, 1998

My Fair Lady, 1964*

Requiem for a Dream, 2000*

Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944**

The Matrix, 1999

The Fox and the Hound, 1981**

Donnie Darko, 2001**

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975*

Oliver & Company, 1988**

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Moulin Rouge, 2001**

A Clockwork Orange, 1971

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004*

The Parent Trap, 1998**

Edward Scissorhands, 1990

The Lion King, 1994**

The Ten Commandments, 1956

Bring It On, 2000*

Lassie Come Home, 1943*

American Pie, 1999*

Make lists of your own! It's great fun.

Updates from Grad School

2010-09-04T11:21:00.004-05:00

<----I live next to this building! Gah!

Friends! A blog post is long overdue. Unfortunately am slightly hungover so any extensive abstract reasoning isn't really in the works right now, but I'm in list-mode right now, so:

-Left my aMAYzing internship at the Art Institute of Chicago to move halfway across the country to Boston. Or, more specifically, Cambridge, Massachusetts, its prettier, cobblestoned cousin.

-Moved into floor 2 of a beautiful yellow building on the northeast side of

Harvard Square, whose first floor is a Bed and Breakfast. Walked 5 miles (to, from, and then again to and from) Target to buy $7 sheets.

-Immediately, upon purchasing sheets, took the Chinatown bus to New York to say goodbye to the city, and maybe enjoy it for once?

-Enjoyed New York. In fact, probably enjoyed New York more than I've enjoyed it as a resident of New York. Realized homework and stress makes me hate things. Also being 21 helps.

-Found myself in New York during rainy 60 degree weather with nothing but a t-shirt. Promptly became ill because of my insistence on not buying a sweater just for the purpose of a few days in New York.

-Arrived back in Boston lacking a voice. Regardless, maniacally looked for possible classes to take and revamped by 2-year class schedule over a hundred times (not an exaggeration!!!)

-Met some cool people, many interesting friends-of-friends, etc. So far everyone has been incredibly friendly! Bodes well for the next, oh, 7-ish years of my life? If not more?

-Orientation! Yes, GSAS orientation, in which the take-home message was "HAVE FUN. Leave your room once in a while," and, "Regardless of what you might think, you DESERVE TO BE HERE. You are BRILLIANT." Eye-roll. I might be lacking in intellectual self-confidence, but I will quite happily take John Harvard's money. Hey, it could be some incredibly wealthy old Bostonian family instead of me (like the ones who have a slightly British rich-peoples accent in old American noir films). Hip hip hooray for social mobility.

-Saw a mediocre Rohmer rom-com at the Harvard Film Archive, and was told that Harvard students get in for free to see ANY films at the Archive. Oh good lord, infinite free movies? In a MOVIE THEATRE? That I don't even WORK IN?

-Classes! Probable list of courses:

1. Comparative Literature-Proseminar (w/ Damrosch)

2. Film and Visual Studies Proseminar- History (w/ Tom Conley)

3. Elementary Japanese

4. Literature, Art, and Exile (w/ Svetlana Boym)

It has just occurred to me that professors, like many organizations, probably track every time their names are mentioned on the internet every day to see what people are writing about their work, so I'll reserve judgments and trashtalk for later posts and will use pseudonyms. Let it be known that I'm least excited about the film class, for once, and incredibly excited about the others! I'm going to do a Secondary Field in Film and Visual Studies, so the film class is unfortunately necessary. Gosh, it just sounds so unnecessarily pretentious from the first class. It also made me late for Japanese. Points off!

-Oh! I forgot. Somewhere in the midst of this orientation/class hullabaloo I managed to build my own desk and bookshelves! Well, assemble is more like it, but it was quite complicated! It had pull-out drawers and a lock and things. I feel like I've birthed a child. Or like a Sim 2 character who read a "mechanical" book and had the little green bar fulfilled, thus learning a valuable life skill, like how to not electrify yourself while plugging things into outlets. I am a successful Sim 2 character! hurrah!

All for now. Later days!

-J

Lollapalooza Day 3

2010-08-14T02:59:00.002-05:00

By Day 3, I was exhausted. After seeing the Room the night before (of course, days and nights don't end with Lollapalooza! Night 1 I went to my friend Jenny's Hotel Hilton party, and Night 2 was a midnight screening of the campy cult classic The Room), I was pretty beat and began the day at the ripe hour of 3:15 PM, when I finally arrived at Grant Park to wait for Yeasayer to start their 4 PM set. Unfortunately, it seems that the bulk of kids at the front for Yeasayer-- one of my favorite bands of the year--were only there for MGMT, playing a bit later in the afternoon. Although Yeasayer played wonderfully, the crowd was only mildly enthusiastic.

Yeayaser: MOST DISAPPOINTING CROWD/MUSIC PAIRING

Regardless, Yeasayer played a pretty good show. ESPECIALLY in comparison to MGMT, who, although playing all of their best songs, are permanently BANNED from my music library now (well, not really, but practically banned). Now every time I listen to "Kids" or "It's Working," I think of what is definitely the DOUCHIEST CROWD I have EVER seen, encountered, or heard of at a show. And when I capitalize my letters, you know I mean business. Talk to me about it in person... I have a pretty ridiculous story about telling off an incredibly sexist jerk standing right next to me. Ugh.

MGMT: DOUCHIEST CROWD EVERRRR

After MGMT, I was in a foul mood. The adrenaline rush that I got from yelling at the aforementioned MGMT fanboy, coupled with crowd surfers continuously falling directly onto my head (concussion?), and the bizarrely oven-like overcast weather, was... troubling. It was a balmy 89 degrees, but with the humidity it felt much higher. I felt myself fading in and out of consciousness, and my eyes glazing over and occasionally being unable to focus. Slowly I began to realize that I was getting heat exhaustion. I made my way out of the crowd before "Kids" came on as their second-to-last song.

After a half-hour or hour or so of sitting quietly on the grass and shoving food into my mouth (since technically standing up is exercising, and since exercising keeps one from wanting to eat, nobody ever wants to eat at music festivals because their bodies trick them into thinking they don't need it, when really their blood sugar is falling to near-dangerous levels), I felt a tiny bit better and wandered over to the National. I couldn't quite brave walking into the intimidating crowd, so I stayed behind the sidelines. It was then that I realized how much I love the National, and how depressed and angsty their songs make me. I resolved then and there never to see the National live again, regardless of how much I love them.

It's too bad I felt ill, because apparently this was actually a great show; the lead signer walked into the crowd at the end, and reappeared to sing the last song! And threw wine all over the audience! Silly heat stroke, or heat exhaustion, or whatever it was.

THE NATIONAL: BAND I DIDN'T REALLY SEE VERY WELL BECAUSE I WAS SICK AS A DOG

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good enough picture of the headliner of Day 3- Arcade Fire. By that point, I had mostly recovered my senses, but I was still relatively exhausted. Had I been at full capacity I might have wormed my way to the nearish front, but decided to stay closer to the middle. It surprised me how many people love the Arcade Fire, and all types of people-- bros, hipsters, old men, old women... but especially bros. Not that there's anything wrong with bros.

Arcade Fire began the set with my favorite song off the new album, the Suburbs (#1 album in America, weirdly enough!), entitled "Ready to Start" (how appropriate!) and then went into my favorite Arcade Fire song EVER-- "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)". They played every great song that they had, and of COURSE ended the set with "Wake Up," the song from the album Funeral which was used in the Where the Wild Things Are trailer, which probably got them unprecedented popularity.

ARCADE FIRE: MOST WELL-TIMED SETLIST

Lolla ended with the crowd ambling out of the park at 10 PM, singing the chorus to "Wake Up" on Columbus Drive, Monroe Street, and Michigan Avenue... a fitting ending to a jam-packed, ridiculously dirty, smelly, painful, but exhilarating Lollapalooza.

Lollapalooza Day 2

2010-08-14T02:37:00.006-05:00

You'll notice that with each day, my number of pictures decreases. This is mostly due to tiredness and consequential lack of interest in picture-taking. Sometimes, though, the crowd was simply too CRAZY to bother to take a good picture! (This is, by the way, always a good sign. Nothing screams "boredom" like endless concert photography)

Saturday, surprisingly, ended up being my favorite day by far. If looking at the schedule alone, I would never think to buy a one-day pass for Saturday. But the weather, the fans, the shows, the friends... it was one of the most perfect days! Awesome.

First up, GOGOL BORDELLO, probably my favorite band EVER. They stand for everything I find interesting and true and I believe in their message wholeheartedly (great interview with Eugene Hutz, lead singer/guitarist, here)!

Gogol Bordello: MOST FUN SHOW, AS ALWAYS

Then Metric, now my SECOND favorite band! Well, ok, maybe THIRD, behind the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who, now that I think about it, probably tie with Gogol Bordello. But Emily Haines, the lead singer, has almost as much rock star quality as Karen O. They're a little more pop punk and a little less punk than the YYYS... a little sweeter, a little quieter at times, but fantastic. They also played every song I loved by them (including Dead Disco, my absolute favorite), and Haines, aside from being gorgeous, was very charismatic on stage! The crowd was also pretty much perfect. A wonderful show.

METRIC: BEST SETLIST OF THE BUNCH

Spoon, however... ehh. I'm not sure. They're a little above my head. I feel the same way about them that I do about My Morning Jacket... good, occasionally catchy music, but I can't fall head over heels in love with them the way I do with bands such as Metric. Maybe they're a little more subdued than I'm used to?

SPOON: MOST UNMEMORABLE SET

Green Day was the headliner. I was surprised to find that I knew about 90% of the songs they played, and the chorus of almost every one of those songs!! It's strange how much we remember from high school. An incredibly fun show, even though by this point my friend Ben and I were so excited that we drifted around in the back, sitting and stretching on occasion. Hey, standing up for 11 hours in a row is hard!

A view of the pretty ridiculous(ly awesome) set, which included a faux skyline, televisions, and crazy amounts of pyrotechnics, including fireworks... and these, intentionally! They also did a great medley which included the "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)", "Shout!", and "Hey Jude," my favorite part of the evening. They played all the way up until 10:15, and therefore had to probably pay tons of Chicago fees since all of the artists are supposed to end at 10 PM sharp.

Lollapalooza Day 1

2010-08-14T02:18:00.014-05:00

All photos taken from my Blackberry... forgive the quality!

Day one began bright and early, a little after noon, to catch the last bit of Balkan Beat Box. Balkan Beat Box: Most Fun Early Set, Even Without Knowing the Songs Beforehand

Then, in the afternoon, Semi Precious Weapons, a "garage glam" band that were INCREDIBLE, and who open for Lady Gaga when she tours. She even had a surprise appearance during the show, singing part of one of the songs and rocking out behind the stage! I couldn't catch her, unfortunately, over the tirade of cameras.

Semi Precious Weapons: Most Awesome Newly Discovered Band at Lollapalooza

Then, the Dirty Projectors: Most Disappointing Live Act at Lollapalooza.

The Projectors are more like music for musicians rather than music for the mainstream. I had an odd feeling that my ears were not sensitive enough for the Projectors, even though I loved Bitte Orca...

And of course, the Black Keys: Most Reliably Good Act

Oh man did I love their rendition of "Tighten Up" live. That song is pure sex. My friend Kirsten called the Black Keys "stripper music" once and I totally agree.

Closeup of Dan Auerbach:

And, of course, Lady Gaga!

Lady Gaga: Most Awesome Over-the-Top Spectacle of Madness

"Scream for me, little monsters!"

Halfway through the show fireworks spontaneously started going off behind the stage. I assume it's coincidental, but it sure looked pretty cool!

Overall Gaga was a great show. I can certainly understand why someone would pay more than half the price of a Lollapalooza ticket to see her... about 10 costume changes and plenty of ridiculousity, including an appearance with Lady Starlight in which both of them danced to a Metallica song and lit hairspray on fire. That was my favorite moment... it showed a Gaga before Gaga, when she was starting out as a music fanatic trying to make it in the industry.

Lady Gaga's appearance at Lolla also had added significance... she played here in 2007, back when she was a brunette, at one of the smallest stages, and left the audience stupefied. Literally, stupefied. No clapping, no enthusiasm. Just... awe, at this completely weird chick in a disco bra singing strangely catchy pop songs. And to be one of the most popular headliners at one of the most popular festivals in the country... well, that's pretty awesome. Go Gaga.

Artists! Poets! Craftsmen!

2010-08-12T15:19:00.004-05:00

Spent the morning translating an incredibly cool Soviet TASS newsreel circa early 1942-ish (we're not quite sure of the date) for the AIC. GREAT fun! It's more difficult than you'd imagine, since the text isn't written, and therefore you're kind of screwed if you don't know how to spell a certain word. Regardless, here's the result, which I'm pretty proud of, and am mostly putting it up here for record purposes so I don't have to keep sending myself emails that I never open. Also, Lollapalooza pictures and details coming soon!

Newsreel Translation

Key: Bolded words are written out on the screen; all other words are spoken.

0:00-0:03 “Artists of the Capital City-Red Army.” Cinematographer: B. Makaseiev*

*last letter is cut off, says “Makaseie” on screen but probably should be “Makaseiev” since Boris Makaseiev was a famous documentary cinematographer at that time

0:07-0:12 The Studio of Moscow Artists prepares new TASS Windows

0:20-0:25 The artist Sokolov-Skalia creates a poster about the two Battles of Borodino

0:37-0:44 The subject of artist Aivazian’s poster is the victory in Moscow’s surrounding area

0:55-1:02 The artists will take their new work to the Front as a present to Red Army soldiers

1:03-1:09: Smashing satire – on the enemy!

1:10-1:21 Following the example of Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's infamous ROSTA Windows, the Moscow poets and artists of the Great Patriotic War create TASS Windows.

1:22-1:28 During the Civil War a new style was born of precise and crushing caricatures and formidable, apt poetry.

1:29-1:36 TASS Windows, falling into the category of war posters and pictures, are as sharp as bayonets.

1:37-1:41 (reading the Alphabet poster aloud) Shchorse** beat the Germans in the Ukraine, they won't be spared, not even now!

**last name of famous Red Army general from the Civil War

(end reading the posters aloud)

1:50-1:59 Yet another instalment: the artist Savitsky finishes up a painting representing the daring attack of the Red Soldier-Horsemen on the fascist hordes

2:00-2:06 The artist Goriaev threw his poster-bayonets to create a caricature of the bandit and cannibal- Hitler!

(Художник Горяев плакатнaми штыками набрoсал карикатуру на опера бандита и людоеда Гитлера!)

2:10-2:16 The talented group of friends, famous by the name Kukriniksy, the artists Kuprianov,

2:16-2:18 Krylov,

2:19-2:21 Sokolov

2:27-2:34 With the sharp sting of their caricatures, they are helping to annihilate the enemies of our motherland.

2:50-2:52 (reading the poster aloud) The Fuhrer is getting ready for a long journey

2:52-2:54 To pin a cross onto his chest

2:54-2:56 But only one is yet unseemly

2:57-3:00 He'll get a cross from us as well!

3:01-3:04 The fascist operations… with vodka

(end reading posters aloud)

3:05-3:12 The Soviet people have already begun to love the TASS Windows, which mirror their deadly hatred of fascism.

3:13 Artists! Poets! Craftsmen! Sharpen your battle weapons for the complete destruction and annihilation of the enemy!

(all text copyright Julia Alekseyeva 2010)

Lolla Tips!

2010-08-06T00:40:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow's the first day of Lollapalooza 2010, officially my third Lolla in a row, officially my second three-day pass to Lolla in a row. Huzzah! Now, I may not be the coolest person in the world (read: NERD) but I do know my music festivals, especially music festivals in Chicago. Actually, Chicagoan music festivals are the only music festivals that I know (and usually the only ones I'd choose to pay money for, anyway).

It seems that Chicago magazines (the Reader, Time Out Chicago, the Red Eye) are very fond of making "what to bring" and "what not to bring" suggestions for Lollapalooza. These, I quickly discovered, are not complete lists, as they cater to out-of-towners ready to sacrifice a good time for looking good. Not good enough for me! THUS, I present to you:

GUIDE TO MUSIC FESTIVALS

-No nice clothing. Nothing nice, actually. Nothing that you wouldn't mind losing, i.e. no fancy earrings, necklaces, etc. Things can get ugly, by which I mean awesome. By which I mean: keep your precious jewels at home and stop complaining.

-Hydration. I spent last summer's Lolla chronically starving and dehydrated because I was so obsessed with seeing as many bands as I possibly could. Not healthy. I ended quite sick, very disgusting-feeling, and barely able to handle the ridiculous moshpit of 19-year old girls that was last year's Passion Pit show. Bring sealed bottled water. You'll need it.

-Sunscreen (duh)

-NO umbrellas. All music festival guides discuss this issue. But let's be honest here. If you're going to get wet, you're going to get wet. A flimsy piece of plastic isn't much with the occasional torrential rainstorm. Concerts happen rain or shine, so no use hiding in the back and crouching under an umbrella when you can be one of the few front row and center, being deliriously miserable and having a great time.

-Short shorts. Generally, being clothed enough to be decent, but just barely, is good for hot, muggy days.

-No nice (read: workplace appropriate, "designer," etc) purses. They'll get screwed up in the heat and rain, and ruin other concertgoers' experiences if you continuously nudge up against them with a huge leather bag. A small messenger bag is key, or small backpack. Or nothing, if you've got pockets to spare.

-NO SKIRTS. They'll ride up while you're dancing, and unless you're the chill-in-back-with-a-beer type, you WILL have at least a few people seeing your underpants by the end of the night. Not cool.

-(probably) no flip flops. (painful? people stepping on you? losing them in a crowd? all possibilities.) Unless you're six feet tall. In which case, you deserve to get stepped on by myriad combat boots for your ridiculous luck. Us vertically challenged types can only HOPE to sneak a single peek at the hem of Lady Gaga's skirt, and even then it would be on a ten-foot screen.

-some sort of ridiculosity (I know that isn't a word. Something to draw you apart from the crowd, since cell phones often stop working at music festivals, especially one like Lolla, with over 240,000 people in a single small park.

-If you're going to look at merchandise, start early. Things sell out faster than you might think. Last year I waited until the third day to find a t-shirt and only the smaller bands had any merchandise left, and I believe it was all kids sizes. Fantastic. Explore the booths early, before the hordes arrive.

-Perry's, where all the DJs go, is a hilarious and awesome time-killer between big bands. It's like a mini-club within Lolla grounds, except instead of judging you on your lack of high heels and shorts skirts it's full of incredibly stoned people giving you glowsticks and passing around their crappy band's LPs.

-What did I forget? Oh yes. HATS! No fashionable black fedoras, stick to straw and summery. Or bandannas. You know, like the cool kids wear.

T-10 hours til Lollapalooza! Lady Gaga, Yeasayer, Dirty Projectors, Metric, Black Keys, Edward Sharpe, Gogol Bordello, Green Day, Arcade Fire, and MGMT here we come!

Xanga! Total Embarrassment!

2010-08-01T00:20:00.009-05:00

Oh man, I was just reminded of Xanga by one of my facebook friends. In high school, or more specifically, from the end of freshman year of high school to the end of freshman year of college (2003-2007), I had a Xanga that I would update very often... at the very least, monthly, but usually, once or twice a week. Everyone who was anyone had a Xanga. It was our way of fighting passive-aggressively, of keeping up social networks without really knowing what social networks were, of writing a diary hoping at least one other soul would understand your angst and realize that it wasn't angst at all. Looking back on how we felt in high school, I can't help but feel a surge of embarrassment for being in a bad mood all the time. I had a pretty good time in high school-- far better than '90s movies would lead me to believe. But aren't the teenage years just so embarrassing?! I just browsed most of the entries for the past 8-ish years and realized just how much incredibly personal and, I think, absurdly obvious information about my personal life existed on the internet with my full name attached. I also wonder how I even got into college with all of this emotional baggage pasted on the internet for all the world to see. Ugh. I wrote about everything from crushes to teachers possibly being crossdressers to my "firsts". I copied and pasted a lot of song lyrics and did many of those ridiculously long, egotistical tests ("100 things few people know about me!" etc). I also used the Xanga as a dream journal before I began keeping one at the end of my freshman year of college (strangely, also the time I stopped using Xanga...) Mostly, though, I ranted. Pretty pretentiously.

It's also odd to see how my music and film tastes developed. Weird to regress from modern times to senior year, when I listened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs nonstop, to the Cure (I thought I was so cool), to Led Zeppelin, and Tool before that... and the Doors and Bright Eyes... I also seem to have listened to a lot of Pink Floyd and the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack (creepy!)...

Snippets from my 2005-and-younger self:

"Tomorrow I'm getting four TOOL cds! I art rule."

"Mood: Melancholy, as always. "

"And maybe I will got to junior prom. I don't want to, though. If anything, to keep my division teacher company, who will inevitably end up sitting uncomfortably in a corner reading a novel. I guess I'll do the same. Too bad I can't go in ripped-up jeans and an old t-shirt." (NERD)

"I was a neurotic jerk yesterday. But that doesn't mean I had to get punched! Does my shoulder really deserve such a bruise? Ouch. Now I refuse to apologize. Fuckass." (Mean? Angsty?)

And aww, the first entry when I talk about wanting to go to Columbia: "I'm hoping that I'm going to get into Columbia University. It's both an ivy league and an artsy liberal arts school. The best of both worlds. We'll see where I go from there. I checked into it today, and they have coed dorms only! FUN STUFF!"

"Wouldn't it be weird if say... I was in my mid-twenties, and all the sudden someone comes up to me and says, "Oh, yeah, you're God. We forgot to tell you for the past 20 something years, but you are, and you have all these cool powers." Maybe that's why I kick ass at the Sims." Huh?

"There are no more cookies..."

"You have no idea how much I love iambic pentameter...
Or at least structural poetry,
although I love writing free verse and blank verse a lot better.
Usually blank verse.
Tres cool.
But anyways... GO POETRY!" (How to know that 15-year old me has NO IDEA what she's talking about)
"I love being liberal. Except for affirmative action. That shit should die." (I still believe this, but this sounds really strange and very egotistical coming from my old self)
Oh, and then there were the Theorems. I had Theorems. And because I love(d) Oscar Wilde so much, I thought a pretty sweet pseudonym would be Julia Wilde, so I called them my Wilde Theorems. For example: "[Wilde] Theorem 1-1: If a person perpetually claims themself as an intelligent person when it isn't necessary to do so, then they are most likely not very clever (or just plain stupid) to interrupt their conversations with exclamations of "i'm intelligent and don't deserve this." A true intellectual would usually shirk away from praise and, if needed, replace self-gratification with comedy." The more fancy words I use, the less I know what the hell I'm talking about, which is pretty obvious.
This is how most of the entries began: "I had an interesting dream last night… it was trés cool."
When I realized I hated economics after having to study it for Academic Decathlon: "QUESTION: If you could have been working at $24.00 an hour for the two hours it took you to shop for the $59.99 lava lamp, and its ugliness caused your rich significant other to break up with you right before he or she was going to give you a $100 watch, what is the total cost of the lava lamp? I have some problems with this... #5. WHO CARES ABOUT MONEY??? You just got dumped! For a lamp!You're not going to find out the economic cost of the lava lamp! You're gonna bawl your eyes out and empty out 2 pints of Ben & Jerry's!"
Nonsequitors: "Ugh, well, my contacts are messed up.

Funny moment today: (don't remember most of it, but I'll try my best)

(Ginny, Shaina, and I sitting on a front porch outside)

Me: There's an ant on my arm...

Shaina + Ginny: Flick it off.

Me: But it's so cool... so tiny and cute... it's running all over my arm... so tiny... and THEN I SMUSH IT TO PIECES!

Ginny: You are SO sadistic!

Me: ... (The ant doesn't die even after smushing, so I flick it off)

Shaina: You're such a freak!

Me: Says The Shaina...

Ginny: Shaina, she makes a point."

My Art Institute Blog Entry!

2010-07-29T15:51:00.004-05:00

YES!!! My TASS entry on the Art Institute's blog is up and running as of yesterday! They made the language a little more flowery than it was earlier, which I'm confused about, but the general gist is the same. Huzzah!

LINK TO THE SITE (and nicer image of TASS 1000) HERE

Mightier than the Bayonet?

POSTED BY admin, ON July 28, 2010,

The word propaganda might initially sound pejorative. Propaganda has been historically perceived as a malevolent method of spreading false rumors. But might we also interpret propaganda as a means of providing a nation courage and willingness to fight in the face of immeasurable odds? Such was the task of the Soviet news agency (TASS) window-posters created in the Soviet Union during the Second World War—and such is the content of Windows on the War, a massive exhibition of these “propaganda” posters that will be mounted at the Art Institute next summer.

Propagandistic posters are usually focused on bolstering support on the home front and distanced from the reality of the battlefield. However, the makers of the TASS Windows had a different idea: to use their creative skills as ammunition in the fight against the Germans. Art became a weapon.

The poster above, number 1000, acts as a visual manifesto for the TASS studio. Above the picture is a quote by Vladimir Mayakovsky, the acclaimed Russian Futurist poet and founder of the ROSTA Windows—predecessors of TASS in the 1920s and the inspiration for the TASS Window project as a whole. The quote reads, in translation, “I want the pen to be equal to the bayonet”—a wish visually manifested in this image. We see Hitler being attacked by three bayonets, alongside a pencil and ink pen. In fact, if we follow Hitler’s gaze, he seems to be staring directly at the hands holding these two tools. The artists, writers, and poets of TASS, it would seem, have succeeded—they have “killed” the enemy’s spirit, while boosting the morale of Soviet citizens with this symbolic defeat. Finally, as Mayakovsky wished, the pen and pencil are on equal footing with the traditional weapons of war.

There was a bona fide sense that producing these TASS Windows was as important as being at the front. In the Soviet Union, the artists who created the posters became beloved cultural icons, as important as military generals. They received state medals and great renown for their work. To this day, surviving former Soviet citizens alive at the time of the TASS Windows can name the artists by heart—artists such as Sokolov-Skalya, Solov’ev, Shukhmin, and the Kukryniksy.

Surrounding the production of the TASS Windows are stories of passion, fervor, and intense labor. The artists would gather, regardless of abominable weather or the advancing enemy attack on Moscow, to create a new poster virtually every day of World War II. Not unlike the Red Army soldiers, the artists and writers labored in inhospitable conditions for the sake of the war effort. Because of the cultural importance of these posters and the iconic status of these artists and writers, heroic or wistful cultural myths came to surround the studio as time went on. According to some anecdotes, TASS posters were carried to the Front by the soldiers and were used to intimidate the enemy. Some TASS artists and writers were even driven to the Front itself so that they might absorb the details of war to imbue later drawings with veracity. The artists and writers of the TASS Windows truly felt their art to be one of the most powerful weapons against the Nazi invaders.

–Julia A., intern in the Department of Prints and Drawings

Image: Nikolai Fedorovich Denisovsky and Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalya, Our One Thousandth Blow, June 5, 1944. Gift of the USSR Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

Billy Elliot

2010-07-29T09:36:00.003-05:00

What makes people enjoy musicals? Personally it seems that everyone I know that loves them imagines themselves as the protagonist, exposed in the limelight. Doesn't everyone have an urge to belt into song once in a while? Why don't we indulge these urges? It seems that people would be happier if only the desire to sing and dance in the middle of a mundane task wasn't so frowned upon. Maybe this is why karaoke is so popular, because, lacking the escape and loss of self that the stage allots to only a select few actors, karaoke gives people the adrenaline rush of the spotlight, however temporarily.

I think that's why I liked Billy Elliot so much. I came into the musical knowing nothing about the history, plot, whatever. I didn't even know it was Elton John's musical. It simply seemed so utterly pertinent... I'm a sucker for stories of revolution, and Billy Elliot is set in the backdrop of the miner's strike in England during Thatcher's time. Billy's father is one of the 200,000 miners on strike, and with the clash of absurd-looking cops and swarthy miners striking batons against newspapers in an epic Capitalist vs. Socialist battle ... was a little boy who just freaking wanted to dance.

And wow, did that boy know how to dance. The character was only 10 years old but performed pirouettes worthy of a mini-Baryshnikov, with occasional jazz and tap. I would probably pay $25 just to see this kid dance for a few hours. Billy Elliot's Chicago run at the Oriental has four kids alternating as Billys, which I think is a pretty ingenious way of not destroying the lives of kid actors. Then again, I'm not sure whether the alternating Billys are kitsch in and of themselves instead of actually being a practical measure but I digress.

Hugely recommended!!

Taste of TASS

2010-07-20T11:33:00.004-05:00

After a whole (half-)summer of translations, I have one I'm kinda proud of. It has a few awkward moments, but it's a pretty good indicator of how we do things. A "Taste of TASS," if you will. Even though this wasn't a TASS poster per se, it was written by Demian Bednii, who frequently wrote for the TASS posters. So I guess this falls under the denomination of TASS-related, but oh well. Check it:

FASCISM—ENEMY OF NATIONS

Unfortunate country under the deadly heat.

Getting the corpses ready for future graves,

Laughing brazenly before death, twisting his rotten, evil grin,

The Fascist decay of worn-down teeth.

Еverything desecrated! In dirt is freedom and culture,

Into oppressive slavery is labor bound.

Onto all of Germany a figure is spread

Ominously dark, the Fascist evil octopus.

The octopus pulls its furry paws

To the north and south, east and west.

In Spain, the Fascist satraps are stunned,

The persistent germ of the People's Front.

The Fascist messengers dart all over the Balkans,

Disturb the Polish,

Connive Japanese plans,

While bringing verbal gifts to various countries

Who want to emblazon a swastika in their coat of arms

The fascist octopus, opening up the hope of its mileposts,

Began to furiously trumpet a march into our Union.

So what? Let him thrust his four paws at us,

We'll be able to chop them off!

-Demian Bednii

Pitchfork 2010

2010-07-18T12:32:00.014-05:00

Finally! My first Pitchfork. I had bought tickets years before and always balked at the last minute, selling them for only slightly more than they're worth.

Pitchfork, the "indie" music festival par excellence, was always put on a music-lovers pedestal that could really only disappoint. In fact, however expensive Lollapalooza tickets are, Lolla seems to be a more relaxed and true festival experience.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LOLLAPALOOZA AND PITCHFORK
1. Attire. One normally wears the most casual clothing possible for Lollapalooza, knowing that it is only going to get soaked with the neighboring concertgoers' sweat. You can always tell firstcomers by their flip-flops, if they are short (how would they see??), or skirts, if they are tall (how would they jump??). By enormous contrast, Pitchfork began like a runway show for American Apparel and Urban Outfitters. On the bus over, which was packed with festival attendees, there were more layers, jewelry, and "vintage" leather bags than were clearly necessary for this disgustingly hot and humid 95 degree day. Thankfully, as the day progressed, layers began disappearing and the cuteness factor eventually evened out as people realized that comfort and NOT having heat stroke is, in fact, more important than ending up in a StreetStyle blog.

2. Set length. Pitchfork was like the Taste of Chicago-- delicious, but a complete teaser. Tallest Man on Earth only got to play 5 or so songs in his measly 30 minute set. Even Broken Social Scene seemed to only get to about 7 or 8 songs, and Modest Mouse didn't even APPROACH the amazing 3-hour long set time of the last time I saw them live, back in 2006. Lollapalooza, on the other hand, is just a conglomeration of near-normal length concerts. With the exception of distortion-fueled post-rock like Animal Collective, Lolla just feels like a bunch of normal concerts, in which the artist(s) normally plays his/her/their hits, plus a few odds and ends for the true fans in the audience, and everyone leaves elated, dirty, and somewhat sick due to 2-ish hours of jumping with nary a bathroom or food break.

3. Shops. Lolla had a few minor merch booths. Beer and water were, obviously, the most popular items. Especially beer. Lolla crowds are more often than not easygoing suburban types, your potheads and bros, plus the far weirder city kids who *somehow* managed to scrounge up the $215 and attend. This = beer consumption. Pitchfork, however, although not lacking in stoners, had very little beer consumption. If people did drink beer, it seemed slightly out of place. The Threadless booth actually received more money than beer! A relatively expensive t-shirt franchise receiving more money than Miller Light somehow seems veeeeryyy strange to me. There was actually a whole avenue of shops, making Pitchfork more of a street fair + music festival.

All in all, Broken Social Scene steals the day. Modest Mouse was a teaser. El-P, however, pretty great.

EDIT: I MET TALLEST MAN ON EARTH! Proof:

I write like...

2010-07-15T20:34:00.002-05:00

Amazing website: http://iwl.me/

Supposedly figures out what famous writer your writing style is like.

For blog posts:

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

For articles:

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

For creative writing:

I write like
Neil Gaiman

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Sometimes I also got Dan Brown for the fiction. Ugh. I really do hate the way I write fiction, though, and my example text is from my Structure and Style class from nearly four years ago... I should start writing fiction again just to prove that my style has improved.

For academic papers:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

P.S. I just copy and pasted a few paragraphs of one of my old papers that was supposed to mimic Kafka and the dumb website said James Joyce. Either I picked the wrong (quasi-)modernist or this website is a bunch of hooey.

Adorable! + Disney List

2010-07-13T01:18:00.004-05:00

Someone made an engagement ring box in the shape of Carl's house from Up!

Amazing!

How perfect to use the film Up for a declaration of endless love... (excuse the sappiness)

---

On the topic of Cartoons, my friend Colin wrote a wonderful review of the Disney Renaissance films (which, I hope, he will post online, somewhere, for public viewing). In my previous review of Waking Sleeping Beauty I assumed the Disney Renaissance only spanned until 1994. I was wrong, according to wikipedia, and a few other sources which I am too lazy to name. I was going to write a rebuttal review of each film, but that would require rewatching some of my least favorites. No thanks, I'd prefer never to see "Hercules" again.

So, in the name of laziness and useless listmaking:

THE NINE DISNEY RENAISSANCE FILMS FROM BEST TO WORST

1. Lion King
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Aladdin
4. Pocahontas
5. The Little Mermaid
6. Mulan
7. Tarzan
8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
9. Hercules

Let it be known that I despise the last two so vehemently because by the time of my viewing the film in mid-to-late-childhood, I already knew the original, grotesque, non-Disneyfied stories and loved the *real* versions so much more, even though Esmeralda is one of my favorite Disney heroines.

Updates

2010-07-08T22:53:00.002-05:00

Ok, so this has officially been the longest lapse in posts since this blog's conception. Well, probably. I didn't really check. Regardless, sorry for the delay. I'm slowly thinking about revamping and re-conceptualizing what this blog is really all about. At this point it's somewhere between xanga, livejournal, and RottenTomatoes, and I'm not really quite sure how I feel about it. The reviews aren't really getting me anywhere, and usually they're just a way of ranting about movies I dislike, or supporting movies I do (which is most of the ones I see, anyway). And since I'll be going to grad school in a bit over a month (eep!) isn't it time to, well, maybe grow up a little?

Since the blog domain is just my first and last name, I suppose I can just have a "this is what I'm up to lately" kind of thing, but that seems a little trite and uninteresting. I can keep it random, but in that case I'd have to update it very often. I see so many movies that writing about all of them, and at least 600 words for each, is getting to be extremely draining (even though a good exercise an worthwhile, etc). I guess the blog could be an update on upcoming projects of mine? For example, I was just published (2 poems) in "Milk Money," a literary journal I know nothing about but that has a very cool cover (see "Vile Pile" cover).

Please let me know if you have any clues on what the heck to do with this blog! Or, you know, with my life.

Another update: the reason I've been slow on the blogging this summer is because of my internship at the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm hesitant to write directly about anything I'm working on (in the Prints and Drawings Department) because I suspect that any mention of the museum or department automatically gets tallied and reviewed by the staff, the way they did at my other Museum internship two Springs ago. Basically, at the Art Institute I've been translating Soviet TASS posters (OKHA TACC: Telegrafnaia Agentsia Sovetskovo Soyuza), which are these beautiful and incredibly moving (and often horrifying) WWII propaganda posters, made to encourage Russian citizens and soldiers to keep up the fight. It's incredibly powerful stuff. I probably can't include any images that aren't on the Museum site, but here's the blog, which I will hopefully start writing for soon (fingers crossed!): TASS BLOG.

I'm absolutely in love with this project. I just hope I don't become desensitized to scathing war propaganda, although I suspect it's slowly been happening!!!

More on the TASS project soon.

The REAL Guilty Pleasures

2010-06-19T00:57:00.007-05:00

Just a few hours ago I was coming home after a night out, in a stage of near-sleep but, like any 21-year old, steadfastly refusing to go to sleep before midnight, and therefore reached for the remote. Flipping through channels, I came upon a movie that I'd never seen but know, objectively, to be horrendous-- "American Wedding." Yes, from the American Pie franchise. And suddenly the memories flooded back-- of Sunday afternoons in 8th grade spent watching American Pie with my neighbor, and giggling endlessly, to watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and being fascinated by her wardrobe changes in 7th grade, and, even before then, to those god-awful Olsen twin movies that seemed to plague every tween and child household. This was the person I was before I was 15, when I began to watch movies with an ardor that lay somewhere between stamp collecting and bizarre fetishes-- a compulsion to watch more, and more, and more, but GOOD more, a More I can tell people about, a More I feel good about watching while also enjoying the very meat of the film. Sometimes I like to forget what I was like before I was 20 and watched my first Hitchcock, before I was 19 and watched my first Godard, before the high school viewing of 400 Coups and even before Donnie Darko and Fight Club, when I brought A Clockwork Orange home my sophomore year of high school and was henceforth banned from ever watching a movie again in the living room.

These ten movies deserve a list of their own. Pretension can only go so far before you realize that the person you are is the person you also hide from people occassionally, and the movies you'd never discuss except with your closest friends. Although I haven't seen most of these movies in many, many years, I find myself thinking of them often, these tween films that seem to be in a league of their own. Of course, I also watched a few "good" movies before high school-- Forrest Gump, Tootsie, Dr. Zhivago, My Fair Lady,the Sound of Music-- and many fantastic animated films (many of Disney Renaissance fame but also great stuff like the animated series "Duck Tales"), but listing these films would be redundant and uninteresting. The following ten are more or less chronological, starting from my arrival to the United States in the early '90s, and continue well into my freshman year of high school. They're also separated pretty easily into thematic elements. (Even as a kid I loved to categorize!) And thus:

THEME 1: FILMS KIND OF LIKE THE ORIGINAL PARENT TRAP, WHICH I STILL HAVE NEVER SEEN

1) It Takes Two.

This Olson twin movie was my first, and favorite, to this day. Before they launched an enormous franchise and began travelling around the world making sub-par tween flicks for ABC Family (and well before college and the ensuing eating disorders), Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson were two blondish 8-ish-year old kids, separated at birth (probably-- the question was never really raised, to my recollection) and trying to get their respective family guardians to get together. Mary Kate was my favorite, playing a Brooklyn tomboy (as evidenced by the overalls and backwards cap, a look I emulated for many years of life). Ashley, as an upper-class piano-playing priss, was less interesting. Seeing Kirstie Alley and Steve Guttenberg fall in love, however... kind of hilarious. I still love this movie. Even if its tomatometer is 9%, lower than SATC2. Oy.

2) The Parent Trap. Many people refer to the film as "where we know Lindsay Lohan from" or "Lindsay before boobs" or "Lindsay Lohan when she was still cute, and where did that girl go?" I watched this film repeatedly one summer before 6th or 7th grade and now seem to know all the lines unthinkingly. This is often not a good thing. But I will attest to my love of this movie; I still marvel at however the tech engineers managed to make Lindsay into two 13(?)-year old girls, but oh well. Same plot as the previous movie, and apparently just a weird(ly awesome!) remake of the original Parent Trap from decades ago which starred the impish girl from Polyanna. Regardless, Dennis Quaid, who plays the father, is pretty much adorable. Also I happily rewatch this movie every time it's on television, a mark of a tween classic for sure! (tomatometer: 75ish. QUITE respectable!!)

THEME 2: MOVIES STARRING MELISSA JOAN HART

3)Sabrina.

Ah, yes, the film before Sabrina the Teenage Witch was launched on TGIF and my ensuing nights for the next 5-ish years were spent pointing at things randomly in an attempt to levitate them. Alas, no sparkly things flew out of my index finger, but damn did I love that franchise. This film, which I remember all the way back from 4th grade, was my introduction. Mostly I was mesmerized by the clothes, and the tasteful black swimsuit that Sabrina Spellman sports during a pool party. There's also a friends-trying-on-stuff-in-the-dressing-room montage, which I now realize is an absolute necessity in any tween girl drama. Regardless, however cute the movie might've been, it was pretty tame compared to the bubbly, perkiness of the show, and was very modest and even serious... probably the reason for the unknowability (is this a word?) of this flick. It doesn't even have a tomatometer!

4) Sabrina Goes to Rome

In a similar vein is this kind of awful little gem, produced at the peak of the Sabrina franchise. I remember being fascinated by yet another string of dressing-room montages, and lots of tourist-y shots of Rome that I adored as a kid. I still haven't been to Rome, partly because it simply doesn't seem appealing without a time-travelling excursion to the Renaissance in order to release a long-deceased relative from a spell entrapping her in an old gold locket. How disappointing it is to be old! And to realize that this movie was so horrible that it didn't deserve its own tomatometer. No mention of it on rottentomatoes at all. Oh well. Also her Italian love interest isn't as attractive as I remember him being...

5) Drive Me Crazy

And then came a legitimately good tween movie starring Hart, and introducing Adrian Grenier, future Entourage lead. Ok, maybe it wasn't as good of a movie as I remember it being, but it was pretty damn fun, and the characters were pretty believable, however vapid. I remember one Star Wars nerd who ended up being the Designated Driver for every party, a pretty blonde that only became popular when losing a great deal of weight, and a punk chick who wore black lipstick and made out with the male lead character in the janitor's closet of their high school. Classic late '90s shit. Ignore the Britney Spears-based title (also the title song). Tomatometer: 29 (ouuuchhh!)

THEME 3: CRAPPY ROMANTIC COMEDIES

6) French Kiss

Meg Ryan + random French dude romantic comedy. To this day it's the only romantic comedy (outside of the Apatow franchinse) that I've ever truly enjoyed. To be specific, it's the only romantic comedy marketed towards women that I've ever fully enjoyed. Maybe it's because I watched it in 6th grade and sex was still a novel concept. Maybe it's because it's set in France. Maybe it's perverse as hell. Mostly, though, I just had pretty bad taste. Although Meg Ryan is pretty adorable as a neurotic Canadian. Favorite moments include a sensual wine-tasting in the outskirts of Paris, a dual-screen partner-switching sex-montage, and a fear-of-flying panic attack inside of an airplane. Tomatometer: 50. (oops)

THEME 4: DISNEY CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIES

7) Wish Upon a Star

Then, sometime in 7th grade, I got cable. And then came Disney Channel in all its cheesy, tweeny wonder. I remember knowing that most movies on the channel were absolutely horrible, but I watched them all anyway. Why? Did I have no friends? (yes) Was I bored? (maybe) Did I feel a bizarre need to chronicle the characters' wardrobes? (absolutely). Although I can list a bunch of Disney Channel originals that I recorded onto VHS tapes (some movie about a mermaid, the Zenon [Xenon?] movies, some movie about basketball players), there was really only one I watched repeatedly-- Wish Upon a Star. Another Parent Trap-esque switch movie, except this one was based on two very different sisters (one astronomy nerd, another promiscuous prom queen type) switching bodies accidentally. Ok, absurd plotline, but the popular-girl-in-nerd-body's Madonna-inspired striptease on the cafeteria tables made it worth it. For the first half of Knocked Up I agonized over the familiarity of the lead female's face before I realized that Katherine Heigl plays the popular girl (or at least the popular girl body). No tomatometer ranking, but one reviewer calls it "gag-worthy" (oh boy).

THEME 5: THE LATER YEARS, MISCELLANEOUS

8) Bring It On.

And then came cheerleading. The best cheerleading movie ever made. I've been dying to rewatch this incredible flick since 8th grade and keep forgetting. I am shameless about my adoration of Bring It On, even to the extent of occassionally bursting into cheer-speech ("ooo-ee-ooo-ee-ooo, Ice Ice Ice!"). Fucking late '90s classic. Also the punk rocker-ish main dude and his Clash t-shirt (what is with my adoration with nerdy, grungy, punkish male leads?) was the sole reason for my later obsession with the band (Dunst: "So, is that, like, your band or something?") I also loved how satirical it was, and how it never seemed to take itself seriously, since the actors and actresses were often too good for the pretty awful script. I can't believe this film only garnered a 64%. Race/class-relations?! Anyone?!

9)The Princess Diaries.

When did this film come out? Early high school? 7-8th grade? Right around this time I was becoming a little ashamed of seeing films with my mom, and this was probably the last one where this happened. Alas, I did buy the VHS, and watched it constantly. Along with body/life-switcheroo movies, I was also a huge fan of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady-type makeover movies. Also Julie Andrews. Big fan of Julie Andrews. (Favorite childhood stars: Andrews and Robin Williams, definitely. Maybe Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, but Williams even played that role in Mrs. Doubtfire). No need to rehash the plot of Princess Diaries, since I'm sure most of you will remember the awkward-girl-finding-out-she's-royalty-and-thus-precipitating-the-ensuing-makeover-montage plot. Also at 13 I kind of resembled pre-makeover Anne Hathaway (my mom, in movie theatre: "But her hair was so much prettier before!"), so I definitely projected my own fugly, lower-income-ness onto the story.

10). American Pie.

AND FINALLY, the mother of all tween movies. Embarassingly, in the start of high school when every class would play the introduction-game, I would always name this raunchy flick as my favorite film. Other kids might name Star Wars, random anime, one ambitious kid even named The Godfather-- but no, I named American Pie all the way. The perviest of the pervy, this movie made this quasi-nymphomaniac 8th grader (but weren't we all nymphomaniacs at that age?) double up in laughter every time. Even though it only garnered a 59% on the tomatometer, damn, this must be the best teen comedy of ALL TIME. It also led to a few obvious iconic... what do you call them, statements? phrases? Before Borat's "Izzz niiice, I like" there was, "This one time, at band camp..." So good, so very, very good.

And there you have it! A break from Godardian pretension and the closest thing to a Catholic confession that I've ever had. MOVIES THAT OBJECTIVELY SUCKED THAT I NOT-SO-SECRETLY LOVED IN MY TWEEN YEARS. The End.

"Wearable Art"

2010-06-16T16:40:00.003-05:00

Works by Nick Cave-- the Chicago-based artist, not the musician. I started googling this man after seeing him in the June Harper's (one of my favorite issues, yet, by the way, and not only because the main article is about Chicago, sort of!). What incredible pieces! I cannot wait to see some of his works at the Walker when I visit Minneapolis for the first time later this summer.

p.s. new blog format/layout... thoughts? too cheesy? I'm changing the headline soon, but am iffy about the overly pretentious (or too busy) background. If it's offensive to anyone, do let me know.

Ondine

2010-06-10T00:16:00.003-05:00

I rarely seem to enjoy movies that rank below a 70 on Rottentomatoes, but Neil Jordan's Ondine, which garnered a mere 60-something, blew me away. Though a film not without its problems, Ondine managed to remain riveting regardless. Of course, having two of the most beautiful people in the world as each other's love interest always helps:

Ondine crosses the strange line between Thriller and Fantasty with some trepidation. A fisherman off a small coastal (Irish?) town gathers his nets one day and finds an incredibly attractive woman, unconscious, within them. After a bit of soft-core-porn-esque CPR, Colin Farrell, alias "Syracuse," reanimates her. Soon he realizes that she--who is now named "Ondine-- brings him good fishing luck, seemingly from singing to the fishes, siren-like. The term "Ondine" is actually the name of an ancient type of Water Nymph. Fitting, since throughout the film Ondine is believed to be an Irish mythological creature called a Selkie, which is a seal that sheds its skin to become human. Mythological thematic elements run deep, and are the most arresting parts of the film.

In fact, so beautiful are these mythological asides that the thriller aspect of this film, which occurs more than halfway in, seems less developed and almost haphazard. It's as if the director, after painstakingly laboring away at the brilliant and lovely first half, gave up and created a heavy-handed and painful realistic framework, but concluded it with a saccharine but unconvincing deus ex machina ending. Of course, the ending is what the audience wants, so one leaves satisfied, for the most part. But I couldn't help but wish that the entire movie was formulated around a tragically beautiful Hans Christian Anderson-esque love story set on the Irish coast. Thrillers are a dime a dozen, but a believable fantasy for a pessimist like myself is hard to pull off, and Neil Jordan seems to accomplish it with great panache, especially in the first half.

Seeing two attractive people fall in love is always, at least subconsciously, pleasant, but the truly great aspect of the film came from a young actress named Alison Barry, who is so unknown that she doesn't yet have a wikipedia page of her own (someone please remedy this soon?). Alison plays Annie, Syracuse/Farrell's precocious young (perhaps 12-year old?) daughter, who has a chronic illness and seems to always be on the brink of death, yet manages to outwit every adult in her path and quote Alice in Wonderland, as if looking for a dreamland of her own. Such a wonderful character, and even quite a talented (albeit unfortunately unknown!) actress.

All in all, certainly a worthy movie of one's ten bucks at the local cineplex. Ondine is not without serious storytelling issues but is nonetheless a sincere and lovely little film, even with the odd thriller-fantasy genre. Also mentions a variety of important issues, such as indie music (Sigur Ros? What?), illness, reality v. fiction, coastal culture (Ponyo much?), severe alcoholism, (bad) parenting, poverty, religion, drug abuse... etc. Surprising and refreshing for what seems at first to be a mere romantic fantasy. It really is a "touching" story, and I'm not normally such a sap (I also despise the word "touching," but here it really seems to fit best in context, I apologize). It opens this weekend, so see it while it's around!

Waking Sleeping Beauty

2010-05-25T22:35:00.003-05:00

I completely forgot to mention two movies that came out recently: Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs and Don Hahn's Waking Sleeping Beauty. Both well-reviewed by critics and highly admired, and I greatly enjoyed both-- probably because I got to see both of them for free. (Go movie theatre connections and free Columbia screenings!) Micmacs I will discuss in my next entry. First up: Waking Sleeping Beauty, a documentary about the Disney Renaissance-- a 10-year-ish period from the mid-80s to the mid-90s in which Disney produced its most beloved classics, which virtually defined our generation: "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and "Pocahontas." These five are undoubtedly some of the best films ever made, animated or not-animated, and especially Lion King-- a Shakespearean tale of epic proportions, a Godfather of the animated children's film genre.

By a fluke of scheduling, I got to go to a after-show Q & A with producer Peter Schneider and director/producer Don Hahn. Peter Schneider, a former Disney employee, was absolutely adorable and very coy about his present affiliation with Disney. The crowd during the Q & A was fascinated and as animation-fanatic as myself; everyone agreed that "Princess and the Frog" was a non-creative flop, and when Pixar was mentioned, more than a few murmurs of "whoop!" were heard in the crowd. It was generally agreed that the Disney-Pixar link was beneficial and produced excellent films that looked forward, while the post-90s Disney films definitely lacked a certain je ne sais quoi.

"Waking Sleeping Beauty" is often criticized for being overly laudatory when it comes to Disney. Stephen Holden of the NYT called it a "sly retrospective exercise in corporate self-congratulation masquerading as an insider’s tell-all." Sure, that might be true, but it personally didn't detract from the fascinating story that is the Disney Renaissance, and the clash of egos that simultaneously produced it and led to its demise. How interesting is it, for example, to know how Sebastian came to be Jamaican! And how each frame of the film is produced! And any twenty-something with a heart will undoubtedly tear up when exposed to his or her favorite childhood scenes-- I for one definitely had an embarrassing sob-moment when I heard Angela Lansbury sing the theme from "Beauty and the Beast," when Belle enters the dance floor in that gorgeous yellow ballgown... ahhh, nostalgia. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FILM. See it if it's still around! (doubtful, however... these independent documentaries never stay around very long. And I doubt Disney would get any of the revenue anyway).

Micmacs

2010-05-25T22:01:00.007-05:00

Micmacs, though visually stunning, is far less obviously pleasing than Waking Sleeping Beauty. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, also the director of much-beloved Amelie and completely confusing other movies such as Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, is an odd bird. The screening I went to was supposed to have a post-film Q & A but I declined to go; my friend Fran told me to beware-- he can be pretty mean. Lo and behold, when introducing the film, he told a bunch of the audience to switch seats-- they were sitting too far away to "appreciate it". He seemed jovial but a little crazy, something that resonated with the tone of his films. Although Amelie has been on my top-5 favorite movies since I was 15, I just couldn't put my heart into any of his other films. I even fell asleep during City of Lost Children-- something I rarely ever do during films (although I was with my high school boyfriend at the time, and watching a movie is always tricky when 18 and in those circumstances). Maybe it's because Amelie is so good that everything else pales in comparison. Maybe I just don't understand his technique... a little grotesque, a little odd, a little... sexist?

Micmacs is severe anti-war political commentary masked as a surrealistic fictional feature film. A man who owns a video store is accidentally shot in the head. He is miraculously saved from dying, except the bullet has remained in his brain and he could pretty much die at any time. Cheerful, no? Returning home from the hospital, he has no job and no belongings, and finds a group of misfits who live in a junkyard and make beautiful things out of trash. The leader of the troupe is played by Dominique Pinon, whose pug-like but generally likeable demeanor is seen in every Jeunet film I can recall. Soon, however, the lead character realizes that the makers of the bullet that shot him and the makers of the bomb that killed his father years ago have their headquarters in Paris, and Micmacs soon becomes a revenge story, with the lead character attempting to get the two companies to destroy each other-- a passive aggressive, but brilliant, tactical strategy.

However, I had serious problems with the film. Its political aspect is quite shallow-- a Fahrenheit 9/11-type banter that seems outdated. There's the sense that Jeunet, although well-intentioned, is out of his intellectual comfort zone; Jeunet is best when confronting personal tragedies, or the little awkward and endearing moments of everyday life, qua Amelie. Taking on such large-scale events seems insincere. Additionally, the film is racist and mysogynist; although masquerading as feminist, the film's female characters are always secondary and only serve to help the protagonist males. They are constantly taken advantage of and slapped on the behind in characteristic French misogynist fashion; as I've constantly reiterated in my travel blog during my study abroad days in Paris, although the French are quite modern politically, their sexual politics are waaaay 20th century, and regardless of intentions their impulsive distaste for Arab cultures runs deep, and shows in Micmacs. To enjoy Micmacs is to revel in political incorrectness, something that is enjoyable for some but just plain uncomfortable to others.

--

Next up, SATC2 (even though it's currently at 0%... but I'm female, I have to... right?), perhaps Babies or perhaps Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The summer movie season always lags in quality but I'm determined to see every damn good film there is to see! Chicago cinema, here I come!

Celebrity Crushes? oh boy.

2010-05-20T11:45:00.003-05:00

I never have very many celebrity crushes. In terms of current actors, I have no more than three or four. Normally this would be attributed to not watching much television. But, as any normal American kid, I watched a lot of TV, and I am unashamed. Now, having graduated, and having gotten sick and therefore currently enjoying a few days of guilty pleasure TV shows in a feverish haze that include ANTM (of course), Gilmore Girls, and, most importantly, Full House, this '90s kid realized that, well, that just ain't true. So, from boredom, a list of the make-believe men in my life.

Figure 1: John Stamos, alias Jesse from Full House. I was five. Uncle Jesse was God.
Also proving that my attraction to rebellious musicians with warm hearts is at least 17 years in the making. Also the stubble and hair... even though he had a mullet in at least 70% of the series.

Figure 2: Michael E. Knight, alias Tad Martin from All My Children. I got really into this soap opera mostly as a way of bonding with my mom and grandmother between fourth and sixth grade. I only have very distant memories of this show, but my deep-seated love for smut runs deep. Sometime in 5th grade I also started sneaking into my mom's room and reading her Danielle Steele novels, proving that I've attained 40-something housewife status at the age of 10. Surprisingly, I still did not know that sex led to babies, which is something I'd only discover in 6th grade with "the Miracle of Life," currently tied in 1st place with "Bambi" for movies-that-fucked-me-up-forever.

However, Tad wasn't really particularly attractive... he's just one of the only "good guys" so he most likely has a lot of female fans.

Next up, Figure 3: Mario Lopez, alias A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell. Former teen actor, current host of a myriad of crappy tv shows, from Dancing with the Stars to... America's Funniest Home Videos.

Figure 4: David Lascher, alias Josh from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Couldn't find a suitable grainy '90s picture for him, but I promise he looked better in real life, also known as the TV screen. Mostly I included him in the list to point out the fact that for many of my preteen years I was obsessed with Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Figure 5: (clockwise from top) Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, and James Franco, aliases Nick Andopolis, Ken Miller, Lindsay Weir, and Daniel Desario, from Freaks and Geeks. Come on, people, who didn't love this show?!?!

All four of these appealed to me in different ways. Even Seth Rogen. Don't ask me why. Undoubtedly Dan Desario was hottest, but so, so, stupid...

Well, that's about it until the college years, which could all be summer up by the following pictures:

BUT, ESPECIALLY

(and sometimes:)

(I wonder what this all says about my psychological development and the fact that I was never into the blonde pretty boys, a.k.a. JTT et all? and why are these guys mostly older? And why are the bulk of them either poetic musicians or unstable or all of the above?)

novel wedding vows

2010-05-12T10:42:00.004-05:00

bwahahaha. I'm not sure if it's the 2-hours-post-last-finals delerium, but I love the New York Times:

Schott's Vocab: Novel Wedding Vows

“‘I take thee as my lawfully wedded spouse.’

Please Read Carefully:

I MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PROMISE (VOW) (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MY ABILITY TO PERFORM, VULNERABILITY CONTENT, AND INCOME), AND ANY OTHER SERVICE PROVIDED BY ME HEREUNDER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE. I EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE, AVAILABILITY, FUNCTIONALITY, OR ANY OTHER ASPECT OF MYSELF. I will not be liable for any interruptions or errors with regard to my medical condition, family history, or relatives; including any and all children which may be produced as a result of this union.”

Howard G

“@Rev: @rockrgrrrl u take @RickR1982 2 b ur hub? #wedding

@rockrgrrrl: y# wedding

@Rev: u take @rockrgrrrl 2 b ur wf? #wedding

@RickR1982: y #wedding

@Rev: w00t #wedding

@TXMom: <3>
@TXDad: RT @TXMom: <3>
@CoolMom1957: M so happy OMG #wedding

@Freebird: @RickR1982 touch @rockrgrrrl n ur dead lol #wedding”

Tom

“I’m really happy for you and I’ma let you finish, but this here is the best wedding of all time! OF ALL TIME!”

Christine

“Bride is now friends with Groom on Facebook.”

Mark L.

-----

In other news, am debating getting a twitter. Mindless self-indulgence, but I might get free stuff. If anyone believes to the contrary speak now or forever hold your peace (*snort*)

---

ALSO thanks to the New York Times' article link, a fascinating article from the National Journal about "red" and "blue" family structures in America. Looks like it's all about "class" after all (told you so! It's all about class. Everything's always about class, even in the US, even now. I am an unapologetic classist).

As Jonathan Rauch states: "To define the divide in a sentence: In red America, families form adults; in blue America, adults form families."

The thing is, however, that "blue" and "red" do not necessarily refer to states, but to personal ideologies. My extremely socioeconomically diverse high school had both types of social norms. There was even disparity in terms of the working class-- it became less a matter of money and more a matter of culture and education level. Usually poorer, Catholic, predominantly Polish or Hispanic recent immigrant neighborhoods showed the family-form-adults trend, while the protestant and Jewish populations reflected the opposite. In terms of the adults-form-families trend, the races are everywhere-- there's no one way of stereotyping or classifying this except in terms of education level. The only reason that the more conservative alternative seems Polish or Hispanic is only with regards to my personal experience, which is pretty reliable but limited at best.

These conservative types live in a different world-- as Rauch continues, "In this very different world, early family formation is often a calamity. It short-circuits skill acquisition by knocking one or both parents out of school. It carries a high penalty for immature marital judgment in the form of likely divorce. It leaves many young mothers, now bearing both the children and the cultural responsibility for pregnancy, without the option of ever marrying at all."

Yet, it's also frightening: "Culturally, economically, and politically, blue and red families drift further apart as their fortunes diverge." Will the red and blue ever see eye to eye? Are they/we destined to be at utter moral and ethical odds?

First year of college, summation.

2010-05-09T00:39:00.005-05:00

From bwog/youtube. A song created by a Columbia freshman about the Lit Hum syllabus, also serving as an additional study guide (supposedly?). Brilliant. Must reblog. Must must. I also like how this kid ends it with stating "2:15 AM!" with a perplexed, incredulous expression. Oh boy do I know that feeling (except I don't channel my study-ennui into creative projects but instead spend hours re-reading webcomics such as "C'est la Vie" and "Girls with Slingshots". Two years ago I spent finals week watching all of the Daria seasons on YouTube, and last semester I spent watching many episodes of the Weekenders...).

In a school spirit mood. Odd! Perhaps something to do with the less than 2 weeks (actually, 10 days) I have remaining on this bizarre, overly-landscaped, unbearably stressful yet lovable ol' campus)...

Also, I'm strange and take pictures of books I use to write essays. But is this really so weird, really?

Irony

2010-04-21T13:41:00.004-05:00

A.K.A Last Subculture and Cinephilia and Spec article EVER!

For some hip students, love affair with irony extends to film

Columbians' affection for irony involves more than just T-shirt slogans.

Published April 20, 2010

Two actors perform a scene from the film “Action World,” a humorous pseudo-action movie that recently took top honors at CUNUFF.

Courtesy of CUNUFF

It’s not very hard to figure out what young people like to watch, but it’s a little more difficult to understand why. This column has tried to explore cultural phenomena like children’s film, “Where the Wild Things Are,” Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, and Landmark Theatres in order to understand what makes them appealing to the young, hip, urban generation. But one extremely important category has been left out: what films young people love to make.

The past two weeks offered numerous opportunities on campus to view films made by undergraduates, including the annual CUNUFF and CUFP festivals. CUNUFF brought in films made by undergraduates across the United States from campuses as diverse as Northwestern, Emerson, and Oberlin. The films shown at the CUFP festival, on the other hand, were made by Columbia’s own students. To anyone who attended both festivals, a trend was apparent in almost every film, especially the ones that were most well-received: the use of irony.

Irony as a concept is familiar to the young, urban population. The ‘noughties’ have seen so much irony incorporated into music, literature, and especially fashion that it almost seems cliché to discuss it: ironic facial hair, ironic trucker hats, ironic mullets, ironic t-shirts. But what about film? In the realm of Hollywood, film has perhaps remained the last bastion of sincerity, with the possible exception of 2006’s “Borat.” Dramas remain dramas, romantic comedies remain romantic comedies. Not so, however, in undergraduate productions, where the best films undoubtedly contain elements of irony. After all, how serious can a film made by 20-year-olds really be?

At CUNUFF, the winner of both “best directed” and “best picture” was the most ironic film of all: the Rambo-meets-Matrix-meets-Austin Powers action spoof “Action World,” which used self-consciously bad acting and a hilarious number of extraneous special effects in order to poke fun at the action film genre (however, the directors themselves—Aaron Fronk, Vince DeGaetano, and Cooper Johnson of Columbia College in Chicago—still claim sincere love for Sylvester Stallone movies).

Victor Suarez, CC ’11, also presented an ironic film worthy of mention, the absurd and oddly funny “Garbage Day!” whose tagline is “Dinner date gone awry!” Awry indeed—in the few minutes of the short film, Suarez toys with violence, murder, and suicide attempts and somehow manages to make drama uproariously funny. Suarez is the only director with a film in both CUNUFF and CUFP (which included his beautifully-shot music video, “Doctor, Doctor”).

“Something that I’ve learned from making shorts is to stay away from drama,” Suarez said when asked about the use of irony in his film. “At least for me, it’s very hard to write a serious short without it ending up pretentious. ... I’ve only seen maybe one or two strictly dramatic shorts that were successful. For me, at this point, the only way I can really communicate a short form story is by poking fun at it.”

Wise words for an undergraduate. Irony lets the filmmaker momentarily knock down the ivory tower, allowing young directors like Suarez the ability to experiment with film while remaining self-aware. There is a reason most dramas made by undergraduates appear unconvincing—filmmaking takes experience, and crafting a believable drama is more difficult than most people assume.

Of course, irony, especially as a comedic element, is also an enormous crowd-pleaser. “I use irony, I guess, because it’s the best method I know that gives laughs without sacrificing a story,” Suarez said. “With drama it’s hard to know if your movie connected with the audience. With comedy you know right away. If you hear them laughing, they bought the story, too... well, maybe.”

Music about Monsters

2010-04-19T00:35:00.005-05:00

What better way to procrastinate than making a top 10 list?

TOP TEN "MONSTER" SONGS
(inspired by the last few years' trend to make constant references to zombies, werewolves, and vampires in absolutely every form of media available)

[ZOMBIES]:

1. Michael Jackson- Thriller
(always the best)

2. C ranberries- Zombie

3. Metric- Help I'm Alive

[WEREWOLVES]:

4. Shakira- She-Wolf
(currently playing on loop. Because it's damn addictive. Even if she's trying to be like Lady Gaga most of the time, at least in this music video)

5. TV on the Radio- Wolf Like Me

6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Heads Will Roll

[GHOSTS]:

7. Deadmau5: Ghosts n' Stuff

[MISCELLANEOUS MONSTERS]:

8. RJD2- The Horror

9. Metric- Monster Hospital

10. Rihanna-Disturbia

Music Humanities

2010-04-17T16:05:00.003-05:00

I'm constantly in awe of the hilarious things I find in my Music Hum readings. Call me a nerd, but I absolutely have to share a few of these gems.

Response to Schoenberg's Five Pieces:

"The pieces have no program or poetic basis. We must be content with the composer's own assertion that he has depicted his own experiences, for which he has our heartfelt sympathy." --London Daily News, 4 Sept 1912

"The performance ended in a wild struggle in which blows were exchanged. It found its echo in the law courts, where a well-known operetta composer, called as a witness, said, "Well, I laughed myself, and why shouldn't one laugh at what is obviously funny?" And another, a practicing doctor, declared that the effect of the music was "for a certain section of the public, so nerve-wracking, and therefore so harmful for the nervous system, that many who were present already showed obvious signs of severe attacks of neurosis." --Nation, September 1912 (by Ernest Newman)

Response to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring:
"Three ladies sat in front of me and a young man occupied the place behind me. He stood up during the course of the ballet to enable himself to see more clearly. The intense excitement under which he was laboring, thanks to the potent force of the music, betrayed itself presently when he began to beat rhythmically on top of my heat with his fists. My emotion was so great that I did not feel the blows for some time. They were perfectly synchronized with the beat of the music. When I did, I turned around. His apology was sincere. We had both been carried beyond ourselves." --Carl Van Vechten
I love love love Stravinsky.

Information is beautiful

2010-04-14T14:36:00.008-05:00

Getting a total kick out of this website: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/! Information really is a shocking, horrible, incredible, beautiful thing. Ok, being a little hyperbolic here, but it's pretty great!

Take, for example, this log of phrases on google that come up when you type "How do I get my girlfriend to..." Oh, gender relations. Most of them were to be expected but I couldn't help but get a tiny bit bleary-eyed over "trust me again" or "forgive me". Sociocultural gender normative roles are fun!

And HA. How... expected. For any boys out there looking to try internet dating, I highly recommend borrowing your buddy's golden retriever.

And ooooh, Beatles kaleidoscope. Makes me want to get out my Beatles records and see if I can recognize whatever the heck a diatonic scale sounds like. Help? Also I have to listen to Revolver again. That kaleidoscope/icon is particularly beautiful!

These were just the most "cutesy" ones I could find. Many are quite chilling. All beautiful!

Bukowski

2010-04-13T23:22:00.003-05:00

I love literature/poetry with a hardboiled facade. Writers who drown their sorrows in whiskey like Hemingway, and then cry in their rooms when alone like Nick in "The Sun Also Rises". This is such an honest and multifaceted poem-- I adore it. In other news, getting two more poems published in the Spring 2010 Tablet! Although this is the third Tablet I'm published in, and so far they've only chosen my poems that have something to do with childhood and growing up in the Soviet Union. I think Tablet has Sovietophilia. Or maybe those are my only poems that are any good...

Bluebird

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?
--Charles Bukowski

Charles Issawi

2010-04-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

Currently: sitting in the yet-to-be-created Edward Said Reading Room in Butler Library, full of wonderful books that have been owned, consumed, devoured, dedicated to, and praised by Edward Said. In it I found this hilarious and pithy gem: a book of aphorisms and statements by Charles Issawi, who, according to the Great God Wikipedia, used to teach at Columbia. It's a wonderfully wise compilation of complete randomness, and I love it.

A few of my favorite aphorisms:

ON INTELLECTUALS: Intellectuals are the salt of the earth. But how unpleasant is the soup that is oversalted.

SOME DEPRESSING THOUGHTS: I
-If a people tie the hands of their government, it cannot serve them; if they do not, it uses its hands to pick their pockets and squeeze their throats.
-The tragedy of politics: If you live with pirates, you must behave like a pirate ("a corsaire, corsaire et demi"); but if you behave like a pirate, you end by becoming one yourself.
-One cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs-- but it is amazing how many eggs one can break without making a decent omelette.

ON SOLVERS OF MIDDLE-EASTERN PROBLEMS: God sent Moses, and he couldn't fix it; he sent Jesus, and he couldn't fix it; he sent Muhammad, and he couldn't fix it. Do you think you can fix it?

ON POLITICAL ACTIVISTS: Those who have a satisfying life follow their own pursuits-- money-making, scholarship, art, love, sports, gardening, or stamp-collecting; those who do not, become political activists.

ON PREDICTION: If you predict the worst possible outcome of any situation, the probability of your being right is 0.9135.

ON REFORM: Most people do not go to the dentist until they have a toothache; most societies do not reform abuses until the victims begin to make life uncomfortable for others.

ON CYNICS: Cynics are right nine times out of ten; what undoes them is their belief that they are right ten times out of ten.

Landmark Cinemas

2010-04-07T11:39:00.004-05:00

EDIT: According to a friend who manages a Landmark theatre, apparently Mark Cuban (Landmark C.E.O) found my article and liked it so much that he forwarded it to all Landmark staff around the country? I'm nothing if not flattered, but it's definitely a bit embarrassing. Also I suspect that I've subsequently been facebook de-friended by the kid that I mention reading Flannery O'Connor. Whoopsie daisies.

--

(Is it wrong to use one's own experience as the foundation of a newspaper article? I think not. They did manage to take out any reference to my having worked at the Landmark two summers. Taking creative liberties, Spec?)

Movie theater chain remains ‘Landmark’ of indie film scene

The Landmark Theatre group bridges the gap between the commercial AMC and the arthouse—it is currently the largest chain of movie theaters in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film.

Published April 6, 2010

All movie theaters are not created equal. New York in particular features a plethora of different movie houses, each with its own particular vibe, from Film Forum to the IFC Center. Of course, these idiosyncratic theaters tend to be New York-specific—most people spend years going to AMC after AMC, eating infinite quantities of overpriced stale popcorn. Experience has taught us that most good movies come in smaller packages, with long lines of ironic-mustachioed college students scattered somewhere along Houston Street. Finding a good movie in New York is never a problem, but try venturing on the other side of the Hudson.

There is perhaps one exception: Landmark theatres, a group of 55 theaters scattered around the United States. The Landmark Theatre group bridges the gap between the commercial AMC and the arthouse—it is currently the largest chain of movie theaters in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film.

The Sunshine, New York’s Landmark, is located on the Lower East Side and is so popular that the lines for its movies—almost always the top-rated films of the hour—stretch past the block. The Sunshine has proven to be one of the highest-grossing Landmark Theatres in the US.

Landmark theaters often have trouble competing with cinemas that exclusively play blockbusters—unless it’s Oscar season, Landmark theaters will rarely play films advertised on television.

Regardless of this difficulty, the company survives through the steadfast loyalty of its clientele, which largely consist of two stereotypes: middle-aged intellectuals and college-aged hipsters (the latter may complain of the lack of vegan popcorn and promptly be scoffed at).

In cities around the United States, and especially outside of New York, the local Landmark tends to be the most popular place to see independent films, often because it is the only place to do so. The Landmark is nothing if not idiosyncratic—each city’s particular cinema is decked in Art Deco décor, sells Magnolia Picture DVDs, and offers not only popcorn (with real butter) but vegan cookies. And, of course, there is the staff.

Most movie theaters are known to have a notoriously high turnover rate—these jobs tend to be easy to get, since employees quit and are hired left and right. Not so with Landmark, however.

Employees tend to be college-educated, intelligent film geeks who stay with the company for years … and years … and years. Applications to the job are usually laughed at and promptly discarded (mentioning “Avatar” in an entrance interview is not recommended). Most employees have been with the company for at least four or five years. And yes, often the employees tend to be of the skinny-panted variety.

This gives the Landmark a very peculiar vibe. The chain is as well-known for the hipster snark of its employees as for the supreme quality of its films. The kid ripping your tickets might be simultaneously reading Flannery O’Connor. The cinemaphile in the box office is most likely just as educated (and elitist) as the student moviegoer.

End of Hipsters?

2010-04-05T14:47:00.002-05:00

Funny article from Salon about the End of Hipsters. Not really convinced that the age of hipsterdom is growing to a close... only that the movement has become less elitist and has a more pronounced range. Hippies didn't only live in San Francisco, did they? San Francisco was just the Mecca of Hippie. I guess Williamsburgh (and I'll also add the Lower East Side to this mix) is just the Mecca of Hipsterdom.

Then again, the article has a good point. There's nothing bitingly clever about calling someone a hipster anymore (not that there was anything particularly clever about it). Everyone in their lower 20's is a hipster to some extent if they're vaguely fashion-conscious.

Even better than that mediocre article is this hilarious photo spread from Paste magazine. Look how far they've gone! From skulls and eyeliner to headbands and iPhones. Of course it is all in good fun; I'm guilty of many of the things the spread mocks: wearing bandannas, keffiyehs (but NOT in the summer, thankyou), an obsession with vintage dresses, bikes, plaid shirts... but somehow I feel like I wear these things unironically. These are just the fashions of the times, I suppose.

In other news: getting a poem published in the Sand Canyon Review.
And: ASK ME ANYTHING.
(let's hope this link doesn't get into the wrong hands...)

Why College is F'ed

2010-03-28T00:45:00.004-05:00

Source: Online Colleges and Universities

Tim Burton

2010-03-24T14:04:00.005-05:00

Latest Spec article, expressing emphatic hatred of emo kids:

Burton’s angsty ‘Wonderland’ is more cliché than creepy

Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" confirms his popularity among young adults, but also cements the increasingly cliché nature of his films.

Published March 23, 2010

With the release of “Alice in Wonderland,” it’s clear that director Tim Burton is more popular than ever before. He has not only created another blockbuster but is also the subject of a popular Museum of Modern Art retrospective—running through April 26—honoring his work. Lines for the exhibit often stretch around the block and timed admission tickets have sold out every weekend. MoMA’s website praises Burton for “reinventing Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision.” This vision, however, is rapidly becoming stale—especially for his older fans, who are already well-acquainted with the pop-gothic surrealism that made him famous in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Die-hard Tim Burton fans fall in the curious milieu between punks and hipsters, in the no-man’s-land best classified as “emo.” Emo, though distinguished by a music genre somewhere between pop punk and indie rock, also doubles as a cultural teen movement. In high schools, the emo crowd disguises its moralistic or religious undercurrents with a dark, alternative exterior. Emo by nature is grounded on the consumption of goods (What would the store Hot Topic be without emo kids?). Punk revolts against consumer culture, while emo embraces it.

It would be helpful to remember that in the Victorian age, gothic novels often had hidden religious agendas. Frankenstein, the gothic narrative par excellence, is equal parts cautionary tale and spook story. Likewise, Burton’s films always feature similarly well-meaning but grievously misunderstood characters, giving Burton films their angsty teenage tone. For example, despite their initially scary appearances, Edward of “Edward Scissorhands” is kind and gentle, and Jack of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” only seeks to make the world a better place.

Many students gravitate toward Burton’s films because they can relate to the characters’ struggles. “These are young-adult themes. These are things young people deal with,” Daniel Conn, CC ’10, said.

Burton stories in nature are moralizing Disney tales with a darker twist. There’s nothing nihilistic about them. He works best with gothic stories because he is able to imbue a little romance into something twisted and macabre. There’s no mistaking it: Burton has an idiosyncratic style that has influenced countless other films (last year’s “Coraline,” for example). Then why does it seem as if Burton hasn’t made a truly imaginative film since the mid-’90s—perhaps with the exception of 2003’s “Big Fish”?

Perhaps Burton has gotten overly adept at his own self-created genre. He is unable to think outside of the box he himself has constructed. Upon watching a recent Burton movie, the viewer has the impression that he or she has seen it all before: gnarled branches, spidery limbs, deathly pallors punctuated by weird neon colors. Burton has become a cliché.

Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” is by nature an extremely fascinating and creepy novel. Even the 1951 Disney animated version was unable to instill it with a singularly moral message. Alice, the quintessential Victorian priss, meets character after character in her surrealist dreamland. Burton managed to warp this tale completely, transforming Alice into an angsty teen feminist trapped in the absurdities of Victorian society. “The original [movie] was exponentially creepier than this,” Conn said.

Somehow, Burton has managed to take one of the most whimsical, absurdist stories of English literature and sap it of its essential creepiness—all in the name of his pop-macabre aesthetic.

San Francisco Graffiti, Part 2: Mission District

2010-03-21T00:22:00.022-05:00

San Francisco Graffiti, Part 1: Haight + Ashbury

2010-03-21T00:16:00.009-05:00

An Education, obligatory rant, etc

2010-03-18T23:55:00.005-05:00

Excellent film! It's everything it's cracked up to be. However, I couldn't escape an enormous feeling of deja vu, since Lucy's blog post from before the film was even released in New York. In any case, if you want to retain that feeling of surprise, don't read this, Lynn Barber's real-life story on which the film was based. Hard to refrain, right? Well, it's a captivating tale nonetheless.

My favorite moment of the film actually occurred near the end, when the protagonist, a seventeen-year old schoolgirl named Jenny, visits her English teacher's house begging for help. The camera zooms in on Jenny's reaction to her teacher's house. This is the only unmarried woman she has ever visited, and she understands what it means to attempt an unmarried life as a woman in the sixties-- the freedom combined with the societal stigma. She does a double take. Perhaps it is possible, she thinks, to lead a happy life through learning, even as a woman.

Perhaps I'm projecting. But it was a very touching (albeit brief) moment. That said, I didn't much like the ending. More of a deus ex machina resolving itself in the span of ten minutes. But you can judge for yourself. And yet, Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan are extraordinary!

--

Since the film is tangentially on the topic of British public school education (i.e. private schools in America), allow me a little rant. After spending the past 6 days living with self-proclaimed yuppies/bobos (boboes? like oboes? David Brooks, some help here?) in the Bay Area, I've come to the conclusion that there are a number of things that I don't believe in. Most of these are widely accepted by the American social system (or at least upper class residents of the Bay Area) as a "good thing". I'd beg to differ.

Disclaimer: if you disagree with any of these, please don't hound me about it. I'm not sorry and I'm not changing my views anytime soon. I don't care if Whole Foods makes awesome granola (though they do). I'm skeptical about most things in life, and tend to be pretty opinionated in general. (Perhaps a testament to the Columbia English major's unsurpassed powers of critical thinking? ha.)

LIST OF YUPPIE THINGS I DISLIKE
or am slightly distainful of, or disapprove of, or am highly skeptical of:

1. Whole Foods
2. Obedient children
3. Suburban sprawl
4. Pot used as tranquilizer (instead of party drug)
5. The obsession with perfect parenting
and, most importantly,
6. Private school (K-12), especially any private school that does not offer full scholarships for the underprivileged.

Explanations:

1. The owner of Whole Foods is a libertarian asshole and I'd rather not support his business. Also their food is way more expensive than Trader Joe's. Only the upper middle class can afford a diet wholly based on this chain. (see New Yorker article)
2. Obedient children do not our nation's future leaders make. Also children by nature are not supposed to be obedient. So it frightens and annoys me when they are.
3. Self-explanatory. I've made my hatred of the suburbs pretty evident to all who know me.
4. A pothead is a pothead. When it comes to the point of a person not being able to function as a normal human being without their morning toke, it's a problem. Yes, even in California. Also people are generally more annoying when they're high. Which is why I think I prefer it being a party drug for most people. Unless, of course, you're the Dude.
5. Kids will take care of themselves. Try not to hit them and it'll all be ok. Nurture them to death and they'll resent you later. In the past week I've been exposed to a parenting technique in which the child learns only by playing. So, instead of being taught to read at an early age, they should "come to it" naturally. In my experience, this is completely bogus. Skills like reading and writing aren't just "fallen upon" like the ability to stand on two legs or learning to speak. And hey, I learned to read at age 3, and I turned out ok. Ish. "Parenting with Positive Discipline" is just another way of wringing money out of the pockets of the perpetually stressed-out upper middle class.
6. Equality of opportunity would inherently entail a complete abandonment of the private school system. Different methods of teaching are all well and good, but if those methods aren't available to the entire spectrum of social, economic, and racial classes, private school becomes just another way of perpetuating the class system. I'm an admirer of the Waldorf schools, but I wish those could be available to the larger community and with greater amounts of tuition remission. Prep schools, however? An absurd concept.

Lollapalooza speculation

2010-03-15T18:17:00.004-05:00

According to various websites, the headliners for this year's Lollapalooza 2010 are most likely to include:

-Lady GaGa
-Soundgarden
-Green Day
-Arcade Fire
-The Strokes
-Infected Mushroom
-Flaming Lips
-Yeasayer
-Dirty Projectors
-Hot Chip
-Beastie Boys

Incredible! Yeasayer, Dirty Projectors, Arcade Fire, the STROKES! I hope this actually pulls through. Last year was amazing but three days of nonstop music was pretty taxing; maybe this year I'll buy a one-day pass and go to aftershows at the Metro. Will definitely try to see the day Gaga plays (of course!). Maybe Ke$ha will also play? I love this girl.

I have a very strong urge to write an article describing how Ke$ha and Gaga are revolutionizing feminism, each in their own particular ways. Beyonce and Rihanna are almost-but-not-quite doing the same things. Also, I don't mind the new "Telephone" video. Talk about Tarantino fetish!

In other news, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was an utter disaster. Will write a serious article on this later this week.

Wes Anderson

2010-03-01T15:08:00.002-06:00

Spec article from last week that I forgot to post.

Exploring the permanence, appeal of director Wes Anderson’s college classics

Wes Anderson's films are college favorites—but why?

Published February 24, 2010

Wes Anderson, director of the Academy Award nominee “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” is known for his quirky and divisive filmmaking style.

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

A select few films fall into the collegiate must-watch category. Students can overhear their famous lines echoing through the halls of Carman and John Jay on drunken Friday nights—”The Big Lebowski,” “Fight Club,” “The Graduate”, and perhaps most notably, Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore.”

What makes a film like “Rushmore” appeal to the college crowd? “Rushmore” describes a semester in the life of Max Fischer, an eccentric teenager, and his obsession with Rushmore, an elite private academy. Although “Rushmore” tends to be collegiate in nature, it is also representative of Anderson’s oeuvre as a whole, and shares many elements in common with other Anderson favorites, like “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Darjeeling Limited,” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” currently nominated for 2010’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Anderson is a modern-day auteur, a filmmaker who strives to control every aspect of production, resulting in a series of films with a very distinct personal aesthetic.

Something about this aesthetic resonates deeply with young adults. All of Anderson’s films could be considered standard Friday-night college fare, and the passion that young adults often feel for Anderson is unparalleled by any other director, except perhaps the Coen brothers. According to Andrew Balmer, CC ’10, an Anderson devotee who recently hosted a “Rushmore”-focused movie night in his East Campus suite, “Anderson markets to younger adults, although I suspect his audience includes a wide age range. His soundtracks, which include some popular songs, the actors he routinely casts—Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke and Owen Wilson, Bill Murray—and the sense of humor he employs all seem attractive to a younger generation.”

Anderson is also known for his distinctive color palettes, which make his films look painstakingly composed. He employs highly saturated primary colors, which make his films appear slightly outside the normal bounds of realism. Even before “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was produced, Anderson’s work was compared to these particular qualities of Roald Dahl’s novels.

Another aspect of the “Anderson look” involves the use of long takes and “dollhouse shots.” “He pans from one part of a set to another, revealing different simultaneous activities. It was great to see his use of this technique in his stop-motion ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ since he was unrestricted by some of the inherent limitations of live-action,” Balmer said. “For example, Anderson could pan between three rooms in three neighbors’ houses, plus a system of underground tunnels linking them, all in a single take.”

The combination of these aesthetic choices with signature classic rock soundtracks—often including names like The Kinks and The Rolling Stones—makes Anderson endlessly appealing to the indie generation. As Anderson is such a beloved director, it is perhaps odd that none his films have ever received an Oscar—although “The Royal Tenenbaums” was nominated for Best Screenplay. Is Oscar gold truly the definitive standard for a good film? Are Anderson’s films actually subpar, and are students just going along for the aesthetically pleasing ride? Is it possible that Anderson’s often homogenous fan base of young, hip intellectuals restricts his mass-market potential at the Oscars? Has Anderson become “too cool for school,” or at least, too cool for the Academy? Perhaps. But, as in the case of Godard, mixed critical reception has often been the mark of a true auteur.

More thoughts about sadness

2010-02-26T10:28:00.002-06:00

Fascinating article by Louis Menand in the New Yorker this week, discussing psychiatry and its place in science. After devouring the article I've come to a few conclusions:

1. I no longer believe in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy as a proper treatment for depression.
2. In the vast majority of people labeled as depressives, what they are feeling is not caused by neurological imbalance but just plain ol' life problems.
3. There must be something perverse in a culture that refuses to acknowledge the suffering inherent in the human condition, and instead labels it as some sort of social deviancy.

Big leaps for an amateur psychologist. Strange that I can still be so interested in psychology but completely disagree with talk therapy now. Maybe I'm just marred by my own disappointing experiences with talk therapy, but it seems to exaggerate the ego instead of actually concretely solving problems. Frankly I don't like talking about my problems. I think about them all day regardless; what's the point of rehashing them for a complete stranger with absolutely no knowledge of your thought processes, intelligence, experiences? How comfortable can we truly be with someone trained to diagnose you? It just doesn't work for me, personally, although I know it has for many others. Really I'd prefer to be cuddling with a best friend on the couch, cup of herbal tea in hand.

I've only had limited experience with this sort of thing, but enough to find it absurdly frustrating, especially when I have my own psychology-knowledge-based superiority complex ("I know what you're doing, I've been self-psycho-analyzing myself since age 15, thankyouverymuch."). I don't like talking ceaselessly, I like asking questions that, unfortunately, nobody can answer: What is the point of suffering? Why are most people never happy except for a short while? Why do we grow up thinking one day our emotional life will plateau into some kind of contentment, when this never happens in reality and life is nothing but constant turbulence? Can we ever, truly, be entirely open with another person? How does one fall out of love?

As the New Yorker article states in its concluding line, Questions like these are the reason we have literature and philosophy. No science will ever answer them. Appropriate, then, that I'll soon be a grad student in comparative literature instead of, say, psychology, which I mulled about in 11th grade. I don't really care much for biology when it's the human condition I'm after.

I've been thinking about this nonstop ever since I was surprised by the comment on my last entry, which may or may not have been written by Franz Wright (although it would be pretty grand if it was). Especially:

... the idea that there is something intrinsically appalling about anyone ever being sad is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard. How might the eradication of sadness be accomplished on a planet of mortal beings? And have you given any consideration, when you look at your own life, to the more positive aspects of sadness.

How true. This is what I've suspected all along, even before reading Schopenhauer. In a world of mortal beings, sadness-- or, I guess, "depression"-- is an inevitable state of being, and has the potential for a pseudo-spiritual resurrection, which the article compares to the cleansing feeling after a period of mourning and grief. Art, too. Art is resurrection.

Sad Poems

2010-02-18T10:35:00.002-06:00

Good article from the Smart Set about sad poetry.

"When a good poem captures sadness, it reminds us of the times we’ve been sad, whether after a death, a failed romance, or even no dessert; of when we’ve been more humble, more understanding and open, more certain that we would never want anybody to feel sad in any way, ever."

I had been thinking about this for a while-- the fact that I am not able to relax without being depressed, because I associate relaxation with poetry, and poetry with depressing themes. I guess it doesn't help if Franz Wright is one of my favorite poets, and his work is mostly about suicide, it seems...

But I guess it's not such a bad thing after all. Apparently reading sad poetry activates the parasympathetic nervous system, aiding digestion and slowing down heart rate... definitely something I need since my stress level is on a permanent "fight or flight" stage.

I've read this poem before, but it's still one of the saddest and most gentle things:

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

-Robert Hayden

Kid Movies

2010-02-10T17:56:00.004-06:00

Newest series installment, qua children's film and adult reception. Thanks to my lovely interviewees for their awesome quotes, week after week! :

Films show that animation is more than child’s play

More adults are seeing “kids’ movies” than ever, and this time, it isn’t only to placate a screaming seven-year-old. We wholeheartedly enjoy them.

Oscar nominee “Up” may appear to be a children’s film at first glance, but it is just one of a score of recent kiddie flicks with an adult following.

Courtesy of Disney Pixar

One Friday night last July, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably in a movie theatre, five minutes into Pixar’s “Up”—a film that is, for all intents and purposes, meant for children. Not helping was the throng of stone-faced ten-year-old girls in the row in front of me, whispering: “Hey, I think that lady behind us is crying.” Uh-oh.

Who is the target audience of films such as “Up”? The viewership of children’s films has expanded to include adults—even cynical college students. Young adults enjoy movies that remind them of an idyllic past—a place of misleading simplicity but also surprising complexity. More adults are seeing “kids’ movies” than ever, and this time, it isn’t only to placate a screaming seven-year-old. We wholeheartedly enjoy them.

On Feb. 2, the Academy Awards nominated Pixar’s “Up” for Best Picture. It became the first animated film to be nominated since Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” and the first since the installment of the Best Animated Feature award. Recently, there has been a renaissance of “family friendly” films—in particular, animated films—which are finally able to compete with live-action features in viewership and overall quality. Consider the plethora of well-reviewed animated films of 2009: “Coraline,” “Ponyo,” “Up,” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” among others.

There are two reasons for this resurgence of interest in children’s movies: Contemporary PG-rated movies are simply better than the average R-rated ones, and “kids’ movies” have become increasingly relevant to young adults. Pixar in particular manages to perfectly fuse these two qualities.

Tony Jin, CC ’10, said, “I could write an essay on why I liked ‘Up!’. I think adults watch Pixar because we have come to expect a level of artistic maturity from all of their films.”

Twenty or thirty years ago, the average college student would never watch a children’s film when an action flick or a thriller was readily available. Now the tables have turned: the best-made films are often PG, and even directors such as Wes Anderson are beginning to branch out. Anderson’s films have been marketed to hipster young adults for so long that the inclusion of a children’s film—“The Fantastic Mr. Fox”—in his oeuvre has become a mark of the kids’ film revolution. Anderson has also managed to retain his signature aesthetic and produce a work of art as enjoyable as, if not better than, its R-rated predecessors.

Jenny Lam, CC ’09, who dreams of working with Pixar, said, “I don’t think family-friendly films are just now expanding viewership to include adults—I think we, as an audience, are beginning to realize that ‘family-friendly’ is not equivalent to ‘kids only’—it means there is something for everyone. As an audience, we are also finally beginning to accept the fact that something like animation—often associated with kids—isn’t a genre, but a medium.”

Of course, there are kids’ movies, and there are kids’ movies. Some college students may rush to the theatre to see “Coraline,” but most would never voluntarily set foot in “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” The difference between these films lies in levels of artistry and plot complexity.

“Family friendly” no longer means “simple plot, no curse words”—the possibilities for these films are infinite, and college students have become a more than willing audience for their artistic feats.

The Keffiyeh

2010-02-08T14:07:00.007-06:00

"First it was the hummus war. Then it was the tabouleh war. Now get ready for the keffiyeh war."

Fascinating article in the NYT today about the Keffiyeh.

(Not to say "good" per se, since it's actually pretty poorly written...) I would recommend reading the comments below for a good fresh daily dose of nihilism. One would think NYT readers would be slightly more open-minded than the average American, but alas...

Apparently some hip Jewish DJs and brooklyn have begun to wear Keffiyehs adorned with stars of David, to keep from identifying with the Palestinian movement. I'm not completely against this; after all, I spent a semester in Europe. Everyone wore a Keffiyeh, even Jews. I bought two. It's a genuine fashion statement, and even in the US, I get compliments about them. It has grown nearly devoid of political statement.

HOWEVER. Nearly devoid of politics is not completely devoid of politics. When I wear a Keffiyeh I am, as a Jew, also supporting the Palestinian movement. It is something political-- and entirely unreligious. Just because I am a certain Matzo-ball, Latke, Gefilte-fish-consuming ethnicity does not make me Zionist in the slightest. I have been to Israel and my views are more complicated, and not entirely unbiased. Everybody should be allowed to wear the clothing they wish (I'm talkin' to YOU, Sarkozy). It's fashion. It's art. Next we won't allow tattoos, piercings, or pendant necklaces (and hey, rabbi from Tzvat, I'm STILL wearing those Ankh earings, years of Egyptian slavery regardless!).

And hey, New York Zionists, Jewish and Gentile social conservatives, you can't take away my keffiyeh. Even if it "offends" you. Two keffiyehs does not a terrorist make.

IN PRAISE OF THE KEFFIYEH:

(stolen from random streetstyle sites):

Oscar nominations podcast! etc

2010-02-05T00:18:00.004-06:00

Check it out. Dan, Morgan, and I talk about the 2010 nominees for the Spectator.

Always strange to hear my voice online, or recorded, anywhere. Not the most incredible of speeches (also I tend to use one too many "um"s), but...

Our nominees:
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. A Serious Man
3. The Hurt Locker

I was iffy about Inglourious Basterds, but I personally supported A Serious Man. Was not as eloquent as I would have wanted to be, but still kind of cool. If there's anything I enjoy doing, it's waxing nostalgic about movies I've seen in the past year, so doing this was incredibly fun. Also gave me a fresh kick in the butt for the amount of great movies that I haven't seen: Precious, Fish Tank, An Education, etc. Alas, if only I was paid to watch films all day!

Also, how incredible is this video by Yeasayer? 'Holy Mountain' meets 'Fantasia' meets indie rock? Beautiful.

Daily Dose of Beauty: February Edition

2010-02-01T16:58:00.006-06:00

February is my least favorite month. By far. How could the shortest month be so dreadful?
-Midterms
-Stress before finding out grad school verdicts in March/April
-Memories of horrible Februaries past (is my February hatred a self-fulfilling prophecy?)
-Cold. Ass. Weather.
-Annoying senior functions
-COLD. ASS. WEATHER.
-Unlike Chicago, it never snows enough in NY to make the WRETCHED COLD bearable
and, of course,
-Valentine's Day

THUS: a poem.

February

by Margaret Atwood

Winter. Time to eat fat

and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,

a black fur sausage with yellow

Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries

to get onto my head. It’s his

way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am

He’ll think of something. He settles

on my chest, breathing his breath

of burped-up meat and musty sofas,

purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,

not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,

declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,

which are what will finish us off

in the long run. Some cat owners around here

should snip a few testicles. If we wise

hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,

or eat our young, like sharks.

But it’s love that does us in. Over and over

again, He shoots, he scores! and famine

crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing

eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits

thirty below, and pollution pours

out of our chimneys to keep us warm.

February, month of despair,

with a skewered heart in the centre.

I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries

with a splash of vinegar.

Cat, enough of your greedy whining

and your small pink bumhole.

Off my face! You’re the life principle,

more or less, so get going

on a little optimism around here.

Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.

AND: an illustration I love of this Magnetic Fields song from their "69 Love songs" compilation. I've been listening to these three albums for a little while. They're often mediocre but once in a while there's an underrated gem. Like this one.

In other news, will have a telecast on the Spectator website soon, after the Oscar nominations come out! (*crossing fingers for the Coen bros, Wes Anderson, Clooney in anything, Hurt Locker...) Should be available on Thursday. Will link to it as soon as it's available (and, you know, taped)

Lastly (reblogged from Jess):

Subculture and Cinephilia

2010-01-27T21:36:00.004-06:00

I HAVE A SERIES! Look look look, my own website (sort of) and everything! I mean, besides this blog.

I actually like the logo. I didn't choose it, but I love the stereotyping. Ray bans for an article on hipster films? Appropriate.

And yes, I understand the incredible anachronism of having a Wild Things crit column ex post facto... about five months... but it's an introduction to a theme. Bear with me, people. (Or is it "bare"? Why am I dyslexic all of a sudden?)

Also: a wonderful link to the Sundance short films! Check out the animated short about a young wolf who meets his father. Gorgeous. Wonderfully made, surprisingly abstract and eerie.

FIRST INSTALLMENT IN SERIES:

Young adult crowd sees appeal in the ‘Wild’

"Where the Wild Things Are" is one cinematic example of a film that appealed to the young hipster crowd due to its indie credentials.

Not just for children, “Where the Wild Things Are” garnered unexpected hype from adults and teenage hipsters alike.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Somehow, the film industry has managed to keep itself afloat while the music and newspaper businesses crumble.

There must be something about film that strikes viewers as increasingly captivating and relevant, especially for young audiences, who have a singular interest in keeping up with the fast-paced world of cinema.

Of course, not all films are created equal. The films that urban college kids watch are not those that the average suburban housewife enjoys on her weekly trip to the local AMC—differences in marketing have made this increasingly obvious. This series of film articles will attempt to figure out why college students—in particular New Yorkers, the inheritors of beatnik fame—watch what they watch. The series will be part psychoanalysis, part cinema studies, part obnoxious stereotyping. Through analysis of films and their target audiences, it will attempt to answer one question: what do the films that students watch say about them?

College students—and New Yorkers in general—are split into numerous subcultures, all of which have tastes of their own. The general public might be currently obsessed with “Avatar,” but those donning skinny pants might prefer to spend their two-and-a-half hours watching the Palme d’Or-winning “The White Ribbon” or the latest Coen brothers’ movie. Some films’ marketing campaigns explicitly target this younger, “hipper” crowd—as an example, take last fall’s “Where the Wild Things Are.”

When the trailer came out early in 2009, the buzz among young adults was immediate, and the film was instantly included in the blog “Stuff White People Like,” a sardonic list of yuppie trends. The blog states: “When the trailer was released a few months ago, you should have been inundated with e-mails, instant messages, and Facebook wall posts about how you need to see the trailer immediately.” It seemed the demographic most enthusiastic about the trailer was the high school set and older, even though the movie was intended for nine-year-olds. Or was it?

Gelseigh Karl-Cannon, CC ’11, and her friends dressed up for the film’s midnight release. She said, “I don’t recall encountering a single child at the screening. I think it was entirely teen/twenty-year-olds with maybe a few adults thrown in. And just like us, many of them were dressed up in onesies and bright yellow crowns...”

Of course, the movie’s success was boosted by its nostalgia factor. The “Noughties” were defined by a growing obsession with past decades and a refurbishing of old styles—the film was obviously mining this trend.

“Where the Wild Things Are” held further hipster appeal through a partnership between Warner Brothers and Urban Outfitters, as well as with its “indie” creative team—director Spike Jonze, writer/adapter Dave Eggers, and musician Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Jenny Lam, CC ’09, said, “Show me a kindergarten student who is familiar with Karen O, Dave Eggers, and Spike Jonze, and I’ll give her my own personal VHS recordings of 'Ducktales.' It’s clear that 'Where the Wild Things Are' was marketed towards Millennials and Gen-Xers.”

Oh Vamp Week

2010-01-19T23:36:00.002-06:00

Random quotes from the New Yorker's article on Vampire Weekend "School of Rock," published Jan 4 (because I forgot to forward my mail home over Winter Break):

The band members say they are surprised to be accused of being so calculating. Batmanglij, the band's keyboardist and producer, justified their lyrics with the write-what-you-know defense. "I remember when Ezra first played me this song he'd written with the lyrics 'Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?,'" he said. "He had just discovered this Facebook group called Society for the Preservation of the Oxford Comma.

(I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Probably 'cause I'm in the group.)

In his sophomore year, Koenig took a class called Imperialism and the Cryptographic Imagination, taught by Gauri Viswanathan. The class read Kipling's "Kim" and, Koenig said, talked about "the ways that relationships between imperial powers and colonized peoples could involve lots of codes." He liked the cryptography class so much that he took another postcolonial literature class, Plagiarism, Parody, and Postcolonialism, which examined the works of African novelists who'd been accused of plagiarism by British and French literary critics.

(This band is like a parody of a Columbia student.)

In the van, Tompson played Sudoku, and Baio read "Snow," by Orhan Pamuk. Tomson asked the driver, "Can we stop at Whole Foods?" He and Baio got out to buy pizza and almonds.

(Why I think this is mind-numbingly hilarious, I don't know. Pamuk? almonds? Whole Foods?)

Top 10 Films

2010-01-15T16:34:00.004-06:00

Per Fran's request, my top 10 films of 2009. (Fran, what are yours? I'm dying to know!) Granted, I haven't seen a few that were on other top 10 lists that I've seen (The Hangover, The Single Man, Broken Embraces, An Education) but out of those I think only the Almodovar would have any chance of beating my top 10. It took me forever to think of a #10, and then, after much hand-wringing, realized that the latest Harry Potter film (shut up, shut up) was actually very well made. I winced a bit when putting it on the list, but hey, it's a good one. Second only to Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban.

TOP 10 FILMS (with absolutely no explanation)

10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Warner Bros. Directed by David Yates. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, etc.

9. Coraline. Focus Features. Directed by Henry Selick. Animated. Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, etc.

8. Coco Avant Chanel. Sony Pictures Classics. Directed by Anne Fontaine. Starring Audrey Tatou, Benoit Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, etc.

7. Ponyo. Disney/Studio Ghibli. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Animated. English version starring Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Lily Tomlin, etc.

6. Up! Walt Disney/Pixar. Directed by Pete Docter. Animated. Starring Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, etc.

5. Thirst. Focus Features. Directed by Park Chan-wook. Starring Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-bin, Shin Ha-kyun.

4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox. 20th Century Fox. Directed by Wes Anderson. Animated. Starring. George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, etc.

3. Up in the Air. Paramount. Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, etc.

2. The Hurt Locker. Summit Entertainment. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, etc.

1. A Serious Man. Focus. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamid, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, etc.

--

Other notables:

Most (Personally) Disturbing and Unethical: Inglorious Basterds (please don't fight me over the inclusion of this one)

Most Boring and Immemorable: Away We Go

Indie Kid Favorite That Should Not Have Been: 500 Days of Summer

Worst Movie of the Year: 9

Scariest Kid Movie: Where the Wild Things Are

Most Cliche Soundtrack: Watchmen

--

Random: a cute comic in Tablet (the Jew mag) by Vanessa Davis that instantly brightened a sour mood. Especially bright for us seniors who can't see more than two months into the future (and are often afraid to look).

Thanks, NYT!

2010-01-13T19:58:00.006-06:00

True, true. Last decade kind of sucked, no?

In other news:

1. R.I.P. Eric Rohmer. I regret not going to that one lecture of yours at Columbia. Talk about guilt. Prolific, extraordinary director of the Nouvelle Vague. I resolve to see more films. The only one I've seen so far has been "Conte d'hiver" but I quite liked it.

2. Will have film series in the Spec every other Wednesday. Awesome!

3. R.I.P. "Columbia & Its Discontents". It was getting sloppy, and I was getting nowhere with my vaguely snarky commentary. Also, two regular shindigs in the Spec is way overkill for someone resolved not to enter into that particular cult.

4. Yoga? Tried it, liked it, keeps me from committing mass homicide. Anyone want to join me at Columbia while explore this whole anti-anxiety thing, let me know.

5. Up in the Air was the best movie I've seen since... Up! No joke. And actually, those two are like apples and oranges, so not even a good comparison. It was probably one of the best comedies I've ever seen, and one of the most original. And it wasn't even that funny. In fact, it wasn't really much of a comedy at all. It was a drama with irony and self-awareness, which is really the only thing that gives something the label of "comedy" nowadays. I loved it loved it loved it. For your own sake, please see it. I cannot be more emphatic about it. I liked it so much I'm not even going to try to review it.

(P.S. George Clooney is a hunk and a half, and always will be.)

6. Newest Gadfly is out! And actually has been since early December. But the PDF is available HERE! Looks good, no? I only wrote a short debate piece arguing against the use of neurotransmitters, near the end. Could you tell I was very VERY emphatic? Could you tell I sound mildly socialist? I hope so.

Avatar, etc

2010-01-08T11:38:00.002-06:00

Pocahontas-in-Space? Probably.

Hilarious link. In any case, I had mixed feelings about this film. Regardless of plotline, the visuals were stunning. Frankly I wouldn't mind seeing an entire 3 hour long movie of some dude running through a forest. However, it soon becomes abundantly clear that James Cameron, regardless of his long backlog of sci fi films, still cannot write successful (i.e. plausible) sci fi films. Avatar straddles the thin line between fantasy and sci fi, and oftentimes it simply seems unbelievable. As my friend Anthony commented, he taps into the beliefs of indigenous American tribes, and certain Asian and African ones in the "interconnectedness of all things," but makes it literal. In Avatar, the humanoids simply cannot live without being connected (literally) to each other. This is wonderful for environmentalist propaganda, but it really is just that... propaganda.

Also, unobtainium? Really? Unobtainium? If the director wasn't Cameron I would swear that the word was used ironically. The plot is full of holes and film cliches, for better and for worse. It certainly makes for an engaged average Joe, and plenty of good reviews. Who wouldn't like a conglomeration of Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, Star Trek, Apocalypse Now, and bits and pieces of every. other. major. Hollywood. film. thrown in?

Where this film succeeds-- apart, of course, from 3D visual effect awesomeness and those killer Buddy Holly-esque glasses (to keep!)-- is in its war movie aspect. Environmentalism aside, this is a pretty incredible war film, and I'm a sucker for "noble cause" war movies (unless, of course, it's Inglourious Basterds, but I'll rant about that another time). It was a film that should have been made, considering the time, and considering the audience. Americans need a film like Avatar, which inspires environmentalism and compassion, and practically makes a mockery of capitalism (or perhaps that was my own projection...) I'm very curious to see where this film makes it in the history of World Cinema. Is this what the later generations will remember? Is this really the Apocalypse Now of our time, instead of The Hurt Locker?

TOP 10 of 2009

2010-01-04T13:17:00.004-06:00

Disclaimer: Frankly, I don't know why I even make these lists anymore. Probably to retain some semblance of sanity. Maybe I'm egotistical and think everybody should have my personal taste in music (not true). Maybe to share the love. Regardless you'll find my tastes pretty mainstream, plus or minus a few, and I'm not sorry. I know more than a few people would scoff at my exclusion of Andrew Bird's "Noble Beast" from my list of favorite albums, but my reasons are totally personal, and generally "Noble Beast" is an incredible album. Just not one of my favorites for the year. Also St. Vincent should probably have been on there-- I unfortunately just didn't get a good enough listen of "Actor" to tell. Otherwise, enjoy.

TOP 10 ALBUMS

10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart—The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

This debut album blew me away from the moment I first heard it. I have a soft spot for twee, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart sound vaguely like a happier version of the Smiths. "Young Adult Friction" was my anthem for much of finals week, and was ridiculously college-appropriate (basically it's about hooking up in the Stacks). The album is consistent and flows beautifully between upbeat dance-friendly pop ("This Love is Fucking Right") and slightly slower, electric guitar-driven grittiness ("Gentle Sons").

9. Metric—Fantasies

Say what you will, but this was my favorite Metric album yet. Who doesn't love an album that begins with a song about zombies? ("Help I'm Alive," which begins: "I tremble, they're gonna eat me alive... can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?") Ok, so it's only a zombie metaphor. But this was supposed to be an album without a single song about love or relationships, and frankly it's quite refreshing. My favorite was actually "Gimme Sympathy," the pop-friendly song about getting famous while wanting to remain unknown: "After all of this is gone, who'd you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" Actually, all of the songs on this album are catchy as hell, and the melodies don't sound anything alike. Brilliant.

8. Regina Spektor—Far

Call me biased (people say I look like her, and we share an ethnicity), but I'm a fan. I have a t-shirt now, and you know it's serious when I'm willing to dish out $50 on a ticket to her Radio City concert in October. And didn't regret it, either! A brilliant composer and songstress, Regina created an album no less wonderful than "Begin to Hope" and "Soviet Kitsch". Although I'm not a big fan of her single-- "Machine"-- "Laughing With" made me cry the first few times I heard it, and I could definitely hear much of the Radio City crowd tear up at its conclusion.

7. Passion Pit—Manners

I first heard about Passion Pit not from a radio station or magazine, but by sharing an iPod bud with a suburban teenage flamer on the roof of my friend's boat on the fourth of July. Indeed most of Passion Pit's fans are on the young side, but this "indietronic" pop is catchier than any other electronic music you've ever heard... and certainly one of the most unique. Originally, Passion Pit was some dude named Michael Angelakos, who created the five songs on the EP as a present for his girlfriend at the time. The relationship might not have lasted, but Passion Pit did, and at Lollapalooza they played the most memorable (and exciting!) show I've encountered in the festival's three days. Who knew suburban teens could crowd-surf and stage-dive with such ferocity? Regardless, "Manners" is an incredible compilation in which every song is unique but incredibly upbeat and catchy. My favorites: "Sleepyhead," "Make Light," "Folds in Your Hands."

6. Blakroc—Blakroc

This has been a good year for the Black Keys. Guitarist Dan Auerbach recorded a solid solo album, played at Lollapalooza, and even when you think the Keys are more popular than ever, they record Blakroc--an album (not unlike Ratatat's remixes) that features rappers like Mos Def, Raekwon, and Ludacris, and presents them, supported by Black Keys guitar-drum stylings and electronica, in a way that appears more sincere than most remixes. It isn't a remix album, it's a collaboration, and one of the most original ones I've ever encountered. "Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)" was a hit since its YouTube leak, but all the tracks are solid... especially the concluding track, "Done Did It." Definitely has the potential to be the party record of the semester, if not the year.

5. Lady Gaga—The Fame, The Fame Monster

Don't hate on Lady Gaga; as the New Yorker said, she's smarter than you would think. And a brilliant songstress. "The Fame" was released in 2008, but it really took off in 2009, and was quickly followed by "The Fame Monster," and the incredible single "Bad Romance". Lady Gaga has the incredible ability to write brilliant pop melody after brilliant pop melody, none of which sound anything alike (compare the "Ace of Base"-esque "Alejandro" with "Poker Face"). It also seems that Lady Gaga singlehandedly brought disco back... no small feat. I'm a fan, and I'm not ashamed. I also have a currently festering theory that Lady Gaga has the ability to bring female empowerment and gender equality back to the forefront of American society... but that's an argument for another day.

4. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs—It’s Blitz

Ok, I'm definitely biased. The YYYs are by far my favorite band. Probably ever. Probably more so than the Beatles. So it's certainly surprising that I, unlike many old YYY fans, placed this album as high as I did on the list. Many have criticized them for changing their sound, turning from guitar-based punk rock to electronic indie rock. But I'd argue that this new tendency of the YYYs towards a slightly calmer vibe is no less interesting than "Fever to Tell," their incredible art-punk debut. It also makes their shows more musically diverse. Karen O is as intense as ever, and songs like "Runaway" and "Heads Will Roll" make it a bit of a surprise that the mediocre "Zero" became as popular as it had. My favorite, however, is "Dull Life," a remnant of their older, punker stage-- proving that regardless of their new love of electronica, the YYYs are as hardcore as ever.

3. The Dirty Projectors—Bitte Orca

This album has been surrounded by so much indie rock buzz that I'm loath to discuss about it. It is, however, undoubtedly brilliant, and a smooth compilation. More than anything, it's psychedelic, and experimental to the core. Critics have said that it's impossible to describe, and they would be right. Just give it a listen and you'll see. Listen to "Remade Horizon" on repeat while indulging in that favorite vice (we all have one... or two), and you'll see. Dance awkwardly to the complex catchy-ness of "Stillness is the Move". It's indie at its best, which is to say, really freaking weird.

2. Animal Collective—Merriweather Post Pavilion

It's been said that this album was meant for two things: live performances, and the outdoors. I can't vouch for the live performance (Animal Collective aren't known for their riveting shows, and they were disappointing when I caught them at Lollapalooza this summer), but this was definitely an album for warmth, balmy nights. It was my summer album for a reason. Each song blends perfectly with the next, in animalistic, feverishly danceable glory. The magnetic pull of this psychedelic, trip-hippie album is irresistible. "Summertime Clothes" is a catchy favorite, about dancing around in piles of trash at night. This band genuinely enjoys the things they sing about: splashing your face with cold water during the heat of a summer day, walking around without shirts and socks. Simple pleasures. Beautiful.

1. The Decemberists—The Hazards of Love

Two words: ROCK OPERA. Or more like, folk rock opera, with costumes, and an elaborate plot. When I saw the entire thing performed beginning to end in Milwaukee I was dumbfounded. My hair stood on end. I had one of those rare Stendhal moments in which art affects you like an arrow, or a first love, and you feel genuinely transformed. I'll save you a prolix description of the plot... just know it involves a changeling boy, the queen of the forest, a sweet girl named Margaret who falls in love with the boy, a rake set on destroying all in his path, and even a few ghost children. An epic romance of the 18th century, all in less than eighty minutes. Dangerously ambitions, and the Decemberists pulled it off beautifully, the way no artist of their caliber could. Other Decemberists albums entailed a few select gorgeous melodies; each song was a story in and of itself. The Hazards of Love is something completely different. It has, with time, become my favorite album of the year, even if not a single song stood out as one of my top ten favorites. I loved it all: every folksy, woodsy, cutesy element, and even the gritty guitar in the background. My favorite was the sound of the Queen's voice, and the screeching, ominous rock in the background, veering somewhere between chamber pop and metal. Wow.

TOP 10 SONGS

10. Airstream Driver—Gomez

9. I Want Some More—Dan Auerbach

8. People Got a Lotta Nerve—Neko Case (+ music video)

7. Sleepyhead—Passion Pit (+ music video)

6. Dull Life—the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (+ awesome fan-made video)

5. Ghosts ‘n Stuff (feat. Rob Swire)—Deadmau5 (+ music video)

4. Bad Romance—Lady Gaga (+ music video)

3. Summertime Clothes—Animal Collective (+ music video)

2. Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) (feat. Jim Jones and Mos Def)—Blakroc (+ music video)

1. The Stillness is the Move—Dirty Projectors (+ music video)

(Runners up: Stadium Love—Metric, Marrow—St. Vincent, Tenuousness—Andrew Bird)

Welcome, 2010

2010-01-02T12:45:00.004-06:00

Not much to report. Last movie I saw in theatres was The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was one of my favorite films of the year, definitely. I'm an off-and-on Wes Anderson fan (ok, ok, I'm a fan), and definitely a George Clooney/Meryl Streep/Bill Murray/Jason Schwartzman fan, so I expected to like it. Surprisingly, it exceeded even my own high expectations. Incredible film, and very adult. My favorite scene occurs in the last ten minutes or so, but I won't give away the ending. Just know that it features my favorite animal and a symbolic fist pump. Power to the animals!

Another excellent thing about this movie is the stilted stop-motion animation. The characters' limbs move like spaghetti. I love love love choppy animation, and in this film it's not distracting in the slightest. I hate nothing more than the smooth perfection of something like Shrek, and the golden days of Disney animating styles are over (yawn, the Princess and the Frog...). Animating is such a wonderous, fascinating thing. No reason to waste good creative talent on run-of-the-mill cartoons. (Exception: Japanese animation, in the sense of Miyazaki. Long live Studio Ghibli).

It's been an excellent year for animation, hasn't it? It's definitely taken over. There was Up! and Ponyo and then The Fantastic Mr. Fox, all garnering over 95% popularity at some point in Rottentomatoes. Feature films, on the other hand... yikes. I'm afraid to see Avatar. Maybe I'll get the courage up one of these days.

Also, rang in the New Year (or rather, the day after the New Year) with a Black Keys concert at the Riviera in Chicago, conveniently located three blocks from my house. However, due to single-digit temps, had to drive (not kidding, and I've walked five miles in the snow. It's freaking cold out). However awesome the Black Keys are (and I've never known or heard of them to give a less than excellent show), the Riviera is my least favorite venue IN THE WORLD and I am not kidding (well, except maybe for United Center...) Awful acoustics, too much distortion, strange setup and it takes a good 45 minutes to get your coat. Awesome. Thanks Chicago.

Otherwise, of course, great set. Heavier on the new album but played a bit of their old favorites in the beginning (some of which I didn't know). The great thing about the Black Keys is how integrated all of the songs seemed with each other, and how differently they sounded from the CD (a good thing, usually), unlike a Vampire Weekend concert, which tends to sound exactly like putting the CD on shuffle, adding 5 seconds of awkward stage banter, and inserting a crowd full of teen proto-hipsters. Delightful. Rather, the Black Keys had probably my favorite crowd that I've ever encountered at a show. I've been to punk, prog-rock, ska, pop rock, metal, electronic, chamber pop, hip hop, reggae, folk, and classical shows, and so far this kind of funky, bluesy, garage rock-seeing crowd became my favorite (the reggae crowd was a close second). I kind of had that unmistakeable feeling, upon entering the Riv, that these were my kind of people! Not clothing-wise, really, or ethnicity-wise, but attitude-wise, and socio-economic wise. It was a diverse group: sparsely bearded, beanied, overwhelmingly male, plaid flannel-full but of the it's-legit-cold-i'm-wearing-flannel-fuck-you variety. I've missed boys who don't (and wouldn't, in their lifetimes) wear skinny pants.

Soon to come, list of favorite songs/albums of 2009. You'll notice my love of indie rock has decreased significantly. On to bigger and better things? (but I'll keep the plaid shirts, thanks)

Daily Dose of Beauty, Finals Edition

2009-12-09T21:49:00.006-06:00

However grim this poem is, it never fails to cure a sour mood. And boy, is that mood sour these days.

This Life

My friend tells me
a man in my house jumped off the roof
the roof is the eighth floor of this building
the roof door was locked how did he manage?
his girlfriend had said goodbye I'm leaving
he was 22
his mother and father were hurrying
at that very moment
from upstate to help him move out of Brooklyn
they had heard about the girl

the people who usually look up
and call jump jump did not see him
the life savers who creep around the back staircases
and reach the roof's edge just in time
never got their chance he meant it he wanted
only one person to know

did he imagine that she would grieve
all her young life away tell everyone
this boy I kind of lived with last year
he died on account of me

my friend was not interested he said you're always
inventing stuff what I want to know how could he throw
his life away how do these guys do it
just like that and here I am fighting this
ferocious insane vindictive virus day and
night day and night and for what? for only
one thing this life this life

-Grace Paley

Wild Thing graffiti from October!

Also, while scrolling through Brooklyn Street Art I happened to come across this:

I saw this same stencil in Amsterdam, over a year ago, somewhere in the vicinity of the Anne Frank House. Strange to think the graffiti artist now resides in Brooklyn, at least temporarily. One of those things that, when you encounter, makes you feel the true interconnectedness of all things. Or something. Here is the picture I took from last fall:

“mindless-boob-girlie symbol”

2009-12-07T12:49:00.002-06:00

Fantastic editorial in the Times today by Judith Warner about the "Bo-Tax" on the health reform bill, a provision that would tax cosmetic surgery by 5%.

I'm not sure whether it is studying abroad that made me particularly sensitive to sexism, but I am starting to see it exacerbate, even beyond 1990s standards. Watching the FIFA world cup draw this weekend was surprisingly painful: I was struck by Charlize Theron's mindless portrayal of a glamour-girl dumb blonde. Theron, an intelligent, worldly actress who has acted in countless psychologically and physically varied roles (i.e. "Monster"), was paid to saunter around the stage in a red ballgown, being fondled by weird soccer players (and Beckham, with that ridiculous haircut!), and occasionally commenting about her alleged idiocy to the completely uncharismatic Frenchman next to her. As a friend noted, if it had been an African American man acting dumb in front of the so-called distinguished European, there would be outrage in the streets, and not without reason. Why a female/male relation on the stage should be any different is another story altogether...

Why not have Theron in a more soccer-friendly or professional getup? Why use a woman at all? And why not use a knowledgeable woman soccer pro, paired with an ignorant male Hollywood Star? Would this blatant misogyny occur if it was set in America and not South Africa? (Probably)

In any case, the point of Warner's editorial was to show the lunacy of a woman's right's group complaining about this amendment, as if plastic surgery were not a symptom of society's decline into Mad Men-era misogyny.

In any era where almost half of females fear becoming a "bag lady," and women are transformed again into the "mindless-boob-girlie symbol," Warner writes:

This is what happens when equal pay stalls, abortion rights wither, and attempts to improve child care and workplace flexibility die on the legislative vine year after year. Women’s empowerment becomes a matter of a tight face and a flat belly. You control what you can control. And so many middle-aged women feel particularly out of control now, as indeed they are, in these life plan-wrecking economic times.

Right on.

Obstacles Show

2009-12-07T10:58:00.005-06:00

Was mentioned in the Spec today, after having a drawing in Postcrypt's Obstacles show. Not quite my 15 minutes of fame, but I'll make do. The drawing was really last Spring's Figure Drawing final project, but they don't need to know that. It's flattering to be the only artist mentioned directly in the article, but did they really have to make me sound pretentious? The writer's tone is almost mocking. Also a little embarrassed by the advertisement for my Tuesday comic, but... alas.

Also, kind of weird to be referred to by my last name. Especially since so few people are able to pronounce or even spell it. That said, the Postcrypt show this weekend was interesting. Frankly I love Potluck far more than St. Paul's Cathedral, and I hate gallery settings anyway. The purple string obstacles were the best part: interactive art! That said, most of the art, including (probably, maybe, most likely) my own, was largely disappointing (i.e. sucked).

Postcrypt overcomes housing ‘Obstacles’

Despite their displacement, Postcrypt Art Gallery has collaborated with Potluck House to curate their last show "Obstacles."

For the first time in almost 20 years, the Postcrypt Art Gallery is homeless after being kicked out of the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel.

The reason behind the eviction was simple, even silly: Hammer-happy members had put too many holes in the walls while hanging up their artwork. Earlier this year, the University Chaplain confronted Postcrypt about the damages, resulting in a compromise in which Postcrypt paid for part of the cost of repainting the basement’s walls. After the discovery of more holes, however, Postcrypt was sent looking for alternative spaces to host events, at least until next semester, when it will be reinstated in its old home.

Although this led to the cancellation of one show and the postponement of another, Postcrypt managed to organize one last event in collaboration with Potluck House and the Columbia University Undergraduate Film Festival this semester. The title of the show, “Obstacles,” seems to be a snarky reference to the obstacles they had to overcome in light of their experience with St. Paul’s. But the president of Postcrypt, Ian Kwok, CC ’11, said, “We had conceptualized the show before the incident.” Kwok also said, “It was really nice to see how many groups reached out to us” during Postcrypt’s hunt for an exhibition space, and that Potluck House was eventually chosen because of its “different vibe.”

While the description of the event on Facebook was somewhat lofty (“Life is full of barriers. … Sometimes these obstacles can be physically circumvented and other times they exist on a more intangible level”), entrance to the first room immediately revealed that the night would be anything but pretentious. A thick cobweb of purple yarn intersected the room at bizarre angles, forcing visitors to crawl through awkwardly to reach a spread of food prepared by Potluck House residents.

Once through, comfortable couches were arranged at ideal angles for watching the strange—and usually hilarious—contortions of others. This room also featured a large-scale drawing by Julia Alekseyeva, CC ’10 (who also draws a comic for Spectator) which depicts nude models, obscure quotes, and emblazoned in the middle, the line “I can’t do this on my own.” Alekseyeva said she had meant to make the work “slightly disconcerting” in order to reflect the “anxieties and obstacles” attached to modern life.

This same shade of gloominess ran through the other artwork featured on the walls of all three floors of Potluck House. It extended to the films screened by the Undergraduate Film Festival, which were shown on the second floor. Co-president Vicky Du, CC ’11, explained that the films had been carefully selected to complement the art exhibition, resulting in a series of very short, silent films with sharp aesthetics.

On the top floor, Feel Good Inc. served Brie and apple grilled cheese sandwiches. Those weary from the three-story climb were treated to delicious food with a humanitarian aim—raising money and awareness for the Hunger Project.

Postcrypt Art Gallery’s exile led to a fortuitous collaboration with other student groups, resulting in a dynamic and multifaceted exhibition. Potluck House’s communal spirit does add a new spin. Its friendly, relaxed space helped to achieve Kwok’s goal of reorganizing Postcrypt into a “more dynamic, active place of convergence.”

Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T16:23:00.001-06:00

I cannot even communicate how much life sucks right now.

Saturday Night at Columbia University

2009-11-29T00:43:00.002-06:00

If you're wondering whether my draftsmanship has gotten worse, it has.

Or maybe I've just stopped caring.

Or maybe that's just the new aesthetic?

Or maybe Spec's scanners have gotten crappier?

Answer: (maybe) all of the above.

La Rotonde

2009-11-27T23:53:00.003-06:00

Got another poem published, check it out here:

http://www.nowherecolumbia.com/node/58

The site is newly sprung, and has a pretty interesting "study abroad"-themed concept. Not the best of my poems, though, but at least it's something. It's also the first poem I happened to write about Paris (I've only written three so far). I'll never forgive the Russophone spelling of my first name though. A curse upon their house.

Currently: procrastinating by compiling my 1o-poem manuscript for my workshop. Realized that my poems have, as of late (or at least as of August) been mostly bizarre and slightly horrific, not to mention melodramatic, and thus realized that I shouldn't really dedicate such a frightening manuscript to anyone I love, really...

So, thus, torn.

Frailty, thy name is Hamlet? (or Julia)

2009-11-23T00:20:00.004-06:00

So. Normally I would never DREAM of posting my homework on my blog. Under any circumstances. In a million years. But before you skip ahead without reading, the assignment-- given by my holy-of-holies Shakespeare prof Shapiro-- was to write a theatre review of a Shakespeare play, and this blog really is about reviews... at least partly (maybe not as of late, but you know, school). Also I am actually mildly proud of this 600-worder, so I figure I'd spread the love (or lack of love). I'm a tough critic sometimes.

Another part of our assignment was to create a funny title. Funniest title gets an automatic A. After 5 hours of pondering a title, and 2 hours (max) or writing the damn review, mine doesn't even get a chuckle. Maybe a mild eyebrow raise. Such is life.

Now on to the Jude Law Hamlet: now, on Broadway!

The curtain opens; Jude Law as Hamlet crouches on the ground. The stage is stark and dim, stony like the interior of a cathedral. After heaving a sigh, the tortured hero rises and exits the stage. This brief introduction was not actually present in the text, and was the only major alteration of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the entire production. The remainder was disappointingly exact and altogether too normal for what is, underneath it all, a deeply disturbing play.

Michael Grandage’s Hamlet, seen on November 12, 2009, could easily be called Shakespeare-for-the-masses; located at the Broadhurst Theatre in the middle of Times Square, and settled rather comfortably between two mediocre Broadway productions, Hamlet seems a strange choice for a theatre that once produced Les Misérables. Hamlet receives its star quality from Hollywood-darling Jude Law. Law, however, proved a spectacular fit for this traditional interpretation of the melancholy Danish prince—so much so that he seemed to drown the other actors under the weight of his persona. When Law first speaks in Act 1, Scene 2, one heard a veritable hush.

Generally, however, the acting was highly unbalanced. Law had great force, and his only other thespian equal was Polonius, played by Ron Cook. Here Grandage interpreted Polonius as a clownish buffoon and the set-up for many jokes made by the intellectually superior Hamlet. Cook’s nasal voice, as well as his strange habit of waddling around the stage, gave him the aura of a penguin. Cook’s comic charisma was well matched with Law’s emphatic delivery, but it also left the other actors in the dust. Claudius, interpreted by Kevin McNally, was a particularly disappointing choice, seeming more grandfatherly than sinister. Most unfortunate was Ophelia, who seemed to straddle the line between dullness and extreme overacting. Grandage’s spin on Ophelia transformed her from the meek, relatively uninteresting beauty of Shakespeare’s work to some sort of post-industrial feminist, with far more agency and enthusiasm than is necessary. Ophelia became catty and brash; after her turn towards madness in the fourth act, she sings her lines instead of speaking them—an odd twist, and by far the most interesting moment in her characterization (sadly, even this was not particularly interesting).

Although Grandage did give a slightly different spin on Ophelia and Polonius, the rest of the play, including set design, seemed too comfortably traditional. The set was minimal: a gray floor emulating stone, a similar wall, and a great wooden dungeon-like door in the middle. Oftentimes an ominous light would pass through two symmetrically-placed windows on the wall, usually implying that a soliloquy was to come. This gave Grandage’s Hamlet a quasi-romantic feel. The comparison made earlier with a cathedral, and the theatre’s previous Les Misérables production, was not arbitrary: it looked like something straight out of a Hugo novel. When the brooding Hamlet shuffles onto the stage his back is arched like Quasimodo’s.

Most interesting, however, was the loud humming noise before each scene, reminiscent of the X-files. Although this noise was at times overdramatic, one couldn’t help but want it even louder. Hamlet is a deeply uncomfortable play, and Grandage seemed to fear any deviation from the norm. The costumes were modern-day and unassuming; when characters were “mad” they didn’t wear shoes—a highly conventional theatrical trope. Coupled with the play’s extreme length—over three hours long, with not a scene cut—one couldn’t help but yawn. Even Freud wrote about Hamlet’s Oedipal quality over a hundred years ago; surely audiences have progressed to be more accepting of strangeness. We leave the play mildly satisfied—there were indeed beautiful things, such as the gentle fall of snow during the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy—but nonetheless desire something far more creative than the banal interpretation presented.

Comics, as of late

2009-11-10T10:00:00.004-06:00

(Idea stolen from the lovely Nikitha)

The pixel quality of the latest comics is so bad that I was loath to post them until now. Oh well. Also haven't had much time to do anything but awfully hedonistic things as of late, + studying, so no blog posts. Perhaps I am finally replacing the internet world with actual, physical reality? Yikes!

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-10-17T16:30:00.007-05:00

I have been looking forward to this film for almost a year, ever since the trailer made the Facebook rounds last winter. I've been obsessed with this book from the age of 5 at least, although when I first read it I knew no English but still liked the pictures. I bought a Wild Things shirt no less than 6 years ago, and still wear it often. What kid doesn't empathize with Max?

My friend Paul brought up the point that the film is so trendy because it caters to our generation's nostalgia, which I think is completely true. I went to three theatres before I found a show that wasn't sold out, and in each theatre I noticed not a single child (they were there, somewhere, perhaps). Going to see Wild Things was like drowning in a sea of plaid oxford shirts and skinny pants. Even the trailers were specifically catered towards the indie crowd (Wes Anderson animation? Count me in, and 1000 of my closest friends). Perhaps it's because I'm in Manhattan, which seems to be some sort of subculture epicenter. And yet, why wasn't I annoyed? Did I actually enjoy being part of some kind of cultural movement? Maybe. All I know is I freaking love Wild Things.

Karen O's soundtrack was obviously incredible, Dave Eggers's script was obviously incredible, Spike Jonze's direction and cinematography was obviously incredible. But boy, I think the vast majority of interactions in this movie would be completely lost on a 6-year old. And it was dark, even for me (who has a Clockwork Orange poster over her bed). There was many a time when I was literally scared to death that Max would be eaten by the wild things. Thus, this is a film practically perfect for college-age kids, but frankly I think anyone under the age of 10 would find it incredibly disturbing. Where the Wild Things Are takes PG-films to a completely different level. Even considering films as rich and unique as Disney/Pixar's Up!, other so-called "kid's" movies simply don't stand a chance against Wild Things. It's a cultural phenomenon!

That said, go see it, and let the wild rumpus start!

---

Edit: A late comic strip about Where the Wild Things Are.

Also fun to read (although I hate the guy): David Brooks over-analyzes the Wild Things

Comic, UPenn-inspired

2009-10-13T19:11:00.003-05:00

Ok, I guess the comic is becoming entirely autobiographical. This is based on last weekend's trip to UPenn to visit my friends Nate and Jon. The kid above is some amalgamation of the two.

That said, regardless of the critiques drawn above, UPenn is an awesome school, and I would be delighted to go there for grad school *crosses fingers*. That said, I'd be delighted to go ANYWHERE for grad school ('cept the South). Well, anywhere in a major metropolitan area, in a blue state. Except LA. This limits my choice to exactly 8 schools (out of the 40-some comparative literature programs in the country), all of which I am applying to, and none of which are, quote on quote, "safety schools."

So yeah, Penn would be pretty great.

--

I just realized that this cartoon is particularly relevant because of Homecoming against Penn. Ha. How accidentally "school spirit" of me.

---

EDIT: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Totally reblogged on Underthebutton, Penn's version of Bwog (though, as we all know, Bwog is way cooler). Julia is famous once again! Even though the author totally dissed my drawing skills. Touché. Then again, it's a fucking cartoon, asshole, not a thesis. JeSUS. Also, every Columbia student knows who Heironymous Bosch is. If not, then why-the-fuck-am-I-here? Also, as I pointed out to my Penn friend Jon, it's a compliment! Columbia doesn't have fun. I don't remember the last time I wore heels (seriously).

Obama and the Peace Prize

2009-10-12T13:55:00.002-05:00

Thankfully I've gotten past my blind Obama obsession of the pre- and post-election period. (Not that it wasn't a lucrative period... it got me on the front page of the Paris metro! Sure, it was by mildly drunk yelling and screaming, but it worked) This is to say that my Obama obsession is now actually capable of some iota of critical thinking. So, when I got the news (from my mother, via gushing email [even though I was the one who blackmailed her into voting Dem]) that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was skeptical. I did a double take and rolled my eyes. Ok Europe, we get it. You love the guy.

Then this weekend, during a particularly late Philly night I stayed up to watch Cornel West on Real Time with Bill Maher. And Princeton's Professor West made an excellent point: with the Peace prize now permanently attached to Obama's name, he would be less likely to gravitate towards the political center the way he seems to be doing presently. With the Peace prize, Obama can hardly turn into a war president: he has Nelson Mandela to look up to!

One New York Times article said the same thing, in a roundup of the day's blogs:

The Peace Prize Committee, made up of Norwegians, appeared to have anticipated criticism of their choice. (The other Nobel prizes are awarded by a Swedish committee.) The Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said the prize was often used to encourage laureates rather than reward them for their achievements.

Encourage! Yes. Yes, perhaps I finally understand their decision. Which is not to say that perhaps others are more deserving. But it is, at the very least, understandable. West also made the point that the Nobel Prize is a symbol of how the world perceives Obama, which is true. As another blogger noted,

This Nobel Prize was an investment in future world peace — a bet that by lending some support to the leader of the free world, that leader would be able to achieve something.

So that's that. Let's just hope this Norwegian ploy works. Also, Cornel West is awesome, and a badass. I could listen to him lecture for hours.

Daily Dose of Beauty: October

2009-10-11T21:58:00.003-05:00

Went to Philadelphia this weekend. Fascinating city. Trolleys, good food, delicious beer. And, in contrast to NY, everybody seems... happy. It's a good thing.

Came upon this poem a few years ago. To this day it is one of my favorites. I still can't believe I took a seminar with this man last semester.

----

Eating Poetry
Mark Strand

I

Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man,
I snarl at her and bark,
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

------

Also: The Airborne Toxic Event's Sometime Around Midnight. Such a well-composed and catchy song.

------

And some Brooklyn art:

Comic 5, Freud Freud Freud

2009-10-06T18:27:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I'm a little obsessed with Freud. In my Shakespeare class I fear that I am becoming the resident Freudian. My senior thesis is (crossing fingers here) going to use toooons of Freud to analyze D. H. Lawrence, a project I'm actually getting really excited about. My comic is called "Columbia & its Discontents," so that's number 4... also I've had this weird urge to buy a bowtie, for reasons I don't really understand. You can interpret that any Freudian way you wish.

Going for more of a New Yorker-y look with this comic, though the random vignettes kind of destroy that. I was wary about using my first name, but I figure that a) most people don't even read the goddamn Spec, let alone the comic strip at the bottom left corner of the Opinion page, and b) who knows? I might become famous. Alas, nobody reads the Spec (for good reason).

Also, I've really gotta work on my handwriting.

Michael Moore

2009-10-05T10:24:00.003-05:00

I’ve stopped going to Michael Moore movies because even though I agree with him politically, his approach is juvenile and offensive. I can feel myself turned off as I watch them, and I agree with him! Imagine how someone who might be on the fence feels! I wish he’d stop and let someone else more effective and subtle step in. It’s too bad, because Roger and Me was actually quite funny and moving. Can’t say that for his more recent works.
--Comment on New York Times website, to Judith Warner's fascinating editorial "The Shame Game"

A good comment, I think. The exact same thing happened to me. As a sophomore in high school, I loved Michael Moore. I saw Bowling for Columbine three times, and then went out and bought the DVD (which is, by the way, scratched beyond recognition. RIP, old friend). I read Stupid White Men and bought Dude, Where's my Country? which was slightly disappointing in comparison to the former. I was a fan. Then Fahrenheit 9/11 happened. I saw it opening day (of course), but absolutely hated it. But then I thought, "Ok, one movie, sure. The next will undoubtedly be better. Michael Moore still has it." That year he was on Rolling Stone's list of the most influential people in America.

And then Sicko, which I STILL DID NOT LIKE even though health care is my #1 issue (#2 is education, #3 social welfare, #4 civil liberties). I thought it was silly. Juvenile. And even incorrect. I agreed with it completely, but what is the point? Yelling at people repeatedly isn't an effective form of rhetoric. And Capitalism, A Love Story? I'd rather not, especially since I like and agree with the guy. I'd just rather not see a film I will inevitably dislike and that will inevitably frustrate me.

Comic #4

2009-09-29T21:05:00.005-05:00

AlRIGHT! I'm now on the Spec Opinion website front page. Always a good sign.

I suck, yes, but considerably less so than others. That's certainly a success for THIS 40% Slytherin! Boo-yah.

Yes, I am the rightmost girl. I own that shirt, I have that haircut, and I made all 3 of those arguments about the movie 9 on my trainride home.

And if anybody cares, I don't pencil in outlines before I draw them, which is 100% due to laziness and results in pretty shoddy draftsmanship. Thank god for White Out.

Coco Avant Chanel

2009-09-26T00:10:00.003-05:00

Saw the film "Coco Avant Chanel" (Coco Before Chanel) today. Opening day. Let's just say my friends and I were very excited.

I won't go into great detail here, but I quite enjoyed it. Even if it was produced by the same people as the atrocious (and fictitious) Jane Austen biopic "Becoming Jane." The target audience here is obviously appreciative of fashion and beauty, and there was much to swoon over in the Chanel film. I found myself literally driven breathless every time "Coco" (she was born Gabrielle Chanel) presented a new outfit... say, by cutting up and reworking her lover's suit. Breathtaking! I also liked how her fashion philosophy was linked to the modernist movement and women's liberation. Yet they didn't even mention her potential relationship with Igor Stravinsky, which I think is surprising.

Also Audrey Tatou, who plays the infamous Mademoiselle Chanel, is herself worthy of swooning over.

Coco Chanel. I love this woman. ONE DAY I will own a vintage Chanel jacket. One day.

Comic Pt 3

2009-09-23T11:37:00.002-05:00

New comic up online on the Spec Website. Third in the series. Actually I had done one last week, but apparently it wasn't very good because they neglected to put it on the website.

Oh well. Moderately proud of this one. Literally taken verbatim from my Science of Psych class, and obviously from personal experience. This has happened to the vast majority of my Columbia friends. 95% at least.

Paris (plus Juliette Binoche interview!)

2009-09-22T00:21:00.002-05:00

So, unbeknownst to me, the Spectator published another film review of mine. For those who didn't know, I got to interview Juliette Binoche and Cedric Klapisch two weeks ago. It was a thrilling and frightening experience, and I can't wait for my next round-table interview. Although the stress of grad school applications might make the whole extracurricular business a tad more... difficult...

Article here

Also this title kind of stinks.

There are also a lot of things I could say about the film that I wasn't allowed to portray in the article. For example, it is VERY misogynistic, but this is only through an uber-liberal American perspective. Klapisch and Binoche did not see this aspect whatsoever. Also the last scene is ambiguous and actually kind of disturbing, and it probably was not meant to be... but of course I will leave you all to form your own opinions. On a scale of 1 to 100 I'd probably hover in the lower 70s, just because the cinematography was so outstanding (what else would you expect from the director of L'Auberge Espagnole?). I was nonetheless very affected by this movie, and its themes stuck with me for days, and days, and days... thus, I suppose, making the film successful, aesthetically-speaking. But this might be because its themes resonated so profoundly with my experiences this past summer (love, illness, family, friendship and whatnot, but especially that damned illness part).

Binoche and Klapisch explore the wonderful world of Paris

By Julia Alekseyeva

Published Thursday 17 September 2009 07:13pm EST.

The City of Light, The City of Love. Clichés about Paris are a dime a dozen. In his new film, “Paris,” director Cédric Klapisch (“The Spanish Apartment,” “Russian Dolls”) may embrace these clichés, but he uses them to his advantage. What results is an inspired film that ends up being as original as it can get.

Klapisch and his lead actress, Juliette Binoche, sat down at the French Embassy last week to discuss how he avoided clichés while keeping the magic of the city intact. “It’s an intellectual city, so we needed to have somebody who’s not an intellectual.... It’s a city of tourists, of fashion, of gastronomy ... I tried to incorporate those clichés into something that, at the end, is not cliché anymore.”

“Paris” examines the city through the perspective of one man. Pierre (Romain Duris) is a dancer who is waiting for a heart transplant, having been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition. After the diagnosis, he spends his time observing Paris through his window, imagining the lives of his eccentric and diverse neighbors, while growing closer to his sister (Binoche).

“Paris” attempts to capture the city as a locus of the French identity, rather than the home of any particular story. This desire, according to Klapisch, is the reason for the ensemble cast: “Just like a metro map, Paris is a network of interconnections.” The multiple stories are, in fact, so intertwined that it is impossible to delineate them, which gives “Paris” complexity while keeping the plot linear and comprehensible.

In fact, the tone of “Paris” is both joyous and celebratory—a far cry from the tearjerker its synopsis suggests. It exposes the amusing awkwardness inherent to all human relationships. In one scene, Elise attempts a striptease, but has trouble taking off her sneakers without falling over. “I was channeling Rita Hayworth,” Juliette Binoche explained, laughing. In another, a middle-aged man attempts to write a “sexy” text message but ends up appearing like an inept stalker.

Binoche and Klapisch stressed the elements of Paris-the-city rather than Paris-the-film. But because of the movie’s overemphasis on the city, some of the characters’ relationships seem forced, even ludicrous. Yet, it is hard not to fall in love with its dizzying cinematography. As he did in “The Spanish Apartment,” Klaspich employs sweeping zoom-ins and panoramic views, giving the viewer the impression of seeing all of Paris, both the grimy and the glamorous. “The bad things are as true as the beautiful things. I wanted to face that,” said Klapisch.

The music—a surprisingly cosmopolitan mix of jazz, hip hop, and rock—also suits the city. Everything enhances the film’s peculiar mix of joy and profound melancholy. One can argue that even the uncomfortable idiosyncrasies (such as slight misogyny and awkwardness) can make for an even more honest portrayal of so complex and magnificent a city. As Klapisch said, “People are ... uneasy. It’s part of the identity of Parisians … they are not happy people. I can see that in a positive way, that everything that is historical about Paris deals with revolt. We don’t accept things as they are.”

“Paris” opens today at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema located on Broadway between 61st and 62nd streets. Tickets cost $12.00.

Mary Oliver

2009-09-20T14:49:00.005-05:00

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

----

How haunting is that line, "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves"... I get shivers every time I hear it.

Makes sense that Mary Oliver is one of the richest poets in the United States, no? Her and Billy Collins. At least somebody is successful, and by golly they've earned it.

---

And another poem:

Crater Lake

There was a war between good and evil.
We decided to call the body good.

That made death evil.
It turned the soul
against death completely.

Like a foot soldier wanting
to serve a great warrior, the soul
wanted to side with the body.

It turned against the dark,
against the forms of death
it recognized.

Where does the voice come from
that says suppose the war
is evil, that says

suppose the body did this to us,
made us afraid of love—

Louise Glück

Deerhoof at Le Poisson Rouge

2009-09-19T11:42:00.006-05:00

How weird and wonderful! This past Tuesday the experimental band Deerhoof played a show at Le Poisson Rouge, a Greenwich Village venue that my friend tells me was created by a Columbia graduate. And what a venue! Le Poisson Rouge seems much smaller than it actually is, providing a deceptively intimate concert gathering. According to the site it "fits 250 fully seated, 700 fully standing, or any combination," but when I walked in I swore only 400 or so would fit on the GA floor. This is, by the way, a good thing. Also props to the venue for its red lights, good quality sound, and video projections displayed on screens behind each band. And the opening band, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, was fascinating... like Bjork or Portishead, but with stranger instruments, less electronic influences, and more drums.

I first heard Deerhoof my last year of high school, and they fascinated me. Probably because something about their music frightened me to the core. Listen to the eerie "Milk Man" and especially the song "Song of Sorn" and you'll see what I mean. I'm convinced that some cords are specifically made to physically grate on your hearing and perception of beauty. Deerhoof is certainly "noise rock," and holds little in common with all other indie rock. I'm not even sure it's indie, really, since lately the definition has come to mean a quieter folk/indie pop, rather than actually referring to an independent label.

My favorite songs of theirs actually blend the strange and the virtuosic. For example, listen to 81+ from Friend Opportunity. The last 2 minutes are simply a ridiculously catchy love song. Same goes for their latest single Fresh Born, out of Offend Maggie, or Giga Dance from Milk Man (still my favorite album of theirs, for reasons I don't really understand).

This was a damn good show, and not even because they played their "hits," or because I knew most of the songs. In actuality I knew about half, but the very fact that I enjoyed the songs I didn't know prove Deerhoof to be good performers. They pulled every gag and trick in the concert-giving book: costume changes! pretentious and adorable stage banter! friend found randomly in audience to play the drums for a song! artsy video projections! synchronized dance moves! not one, but TWO encores! props, such as a tiny stuffed penguin and a glow-in-the-dark basketball! all of the band members switching instruments! Sometimes all of these would occur within a single song.

Of course, this was all made better by the fact that I was practically front-and-center, except for a row of people with SLR's and Japanese groupies obsessed with lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki. (Actually a good number of Deerhoof's songs are sung in Japanese, and Satomi arrived fresh off the boat (theoretically speaking) in San Francisco when Deerhoof was being formed).

What a show, what a show.

Socialism and Healthcare

2009-09-16T12:57:00.003-05:00

A fascinating article in the New York Times today, a kind of round-table gathering where leading intellectuals of the day discuss why "socialism" is being applied to Obama's recent health care plan, and why Americans so fervently (and, in my opinion, blindly) reject it.

Surprisingly, the part of this article I found most appealing were these words, written by no other than a conservative:

For conservatives, the battle cry is liberty. But for liberals, it’s equality. The former rests at the heart of capitalism and free markets, while the latter rests at the heart of socialism, government control and federal regulation.

This argument goes all the way back to de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, a favorite reading of mine, and a book I find at least 90% accurate, even nearly 200 years since its publication in the 19th century. Taken as an analogy, liberal: equality as conservative: liberty. (I will always lean on the side of equality. Even for someone who wrote a speech in praise of the 1st amendment in high school, I am even more a rampant supporter of "equality of opportunity") Yet seeing the healthcare debate in these black and white terms, however normally applicable, is utterly inhumane. If we are the children of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," what good is liberty without... life? When 18,000 lives a year (the approximate number who die each year of lack of health insurance) stand in the balance?

I love you Paul Krugman, and I agree, but something has to happen with this whole healthcare debacle... and, on a personal level, should my working class parents be penalized and virtually rendered destitute for the Soviet Union's mistake? Am I somehow to blame for an disease that I was (pretty much) born with, that racked up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills (no kidding) just over the last two months?

Millenium Actress, etc

2009-09-11T15:55:00.004-05:00

I absolutely love this film. This isn't a review, it's a gushing flow of wonder and admiration. And no wonder: Director Satoshi Kon also made Paprika, a movie I love so dearly that I refuse to transport its poster across state lines, lest it gets creases.

Millenium Actress is the story of a great actress named Chiyoko Fujiwara. After 30 years in seclusion, two men find the elderly Chiyoko in order to film a documentary of her life. Her tale unfolds, and the two men are thrown, literally, into a film-version of her life. Soon, this becomes a mix of all of the films she has ever starred in. Fiction blends with reality, which veers into meta-fiction, while still steering clear of outright fantasy (this dubious line between fiction/reality, dream/awakedness is also explored in Paprika). It is a tale of reality as perceived by Chiyoko, and the exegesis of her rise to stardom. It is an animated homage to all of cinematic history. And of course, like nearly all captivating films, it is a story of love.

(I will never be able to stop loving anime)

And there is the phrase that the film repeats constantly, which I can't quite get out of my head: "I hate you more than I can bear. And I love you more than I can bear. You are destined to burn in the flames of eternal love."

----

On this whole "love" theme (but mostly randomly), I present: my new favorite John Ashbery poem, which I think is the most unusual love poem I have ever read, and thus the most beautiful.

The New Higher
By John Ashbery

You meant more than life to me. I lived through
you not knowing, not knowing I was living.
I learned that you called for me. I came to where
you were living, up a stair. There was no one there.
No one to appreciate me. The legality of it
upset a chair. Many times to celebrate
we were called together and where
we had been there was nothing there,
nothing that is anywhere. We passed obliquely,
leaving no stare. When the sun was done muttering,
in an optimistic way, it was time to leave that there.

Blithely passing in and out of where, blushing shyly
at the tag on the overcoat near the window where
the outside crept away, I put aside the there and now.
Now it was time to stumble anew,
blacking out when time came in the window.
There was not much of it left.
I laughed and put my hands shyly
across your eyes. Can you see now?
Yes I can see I am only in the where
where the blossoming stream takes off, under your window.
Go presently you said. Go from my window.
I am in love with your window I cannot undermine
it, I said.

Columbia & Its Discontents

2009-09-10T19:17:00.005-05:00

My comic career? Nooooot quite starting off on the right foot. Pretty difficult stuff, actually. It's like learning to speak an entirely new language, even after years of being able to read it.

So now I have a weekly comic in the Spec, which isn't actually that impressive, seeing as it's a collegiate newspaper, but I suppose everybody (even talentless dilettantes such as myself) needs to start somewhere.

So here it is. The strip is called "Columbia & its Discontents," and the awkwardly self-conscious Columbia Core Curriculum pun (Freud, duhhh) seems to suit the paper. Really at this point it's an experiment in comic-drawing above all else. Although I was so embarrassed of the comic that I actually ran away (again, very awkwardly) before the editor got a chance to look at it. I think I'm not used to drawing in a more infantile style. Also those brush pens are damn hard to handle. Ed, how in the hell do you do it?!

As you can see I'm still shaky at this whole "surprise/bewildered" look. And the girl with the laptop in the 5th (?) panel-thing has a hand that looks like she's holding a cell phone and I'm not sure how to fix it. 15 years (no kidding) of art classes and I'm back at square 1.

One last note: I did not specifically want to do a "Columbia" theme but I figure it'd be easier to practice if I have a specific topic at hand. More direction usually produces better work (I'm hoping). Constructive criticisms always appreciated, but I won't promise not to cry in the corner.

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Edit: So apparently people are liking the comic! You can even rate it at the website here. Starting next week it will come out every Tuesday in the Spectator.

Burroughs

2009-08-28T10:29:00.003-05:00

Can't wait to see this film about William S. Burroughs. Too bad the screening and afterparty is $60...

A preview quote from the article:

"Burroughs also spent some formative years on the shores of Lake Michigan, though he didn't speak as fondly of them. In a passage he later excised from Naked Lunch, he wrote, "There is something about Chicago that paralyzes the spirit under a dead weight of a formalism dictated by hoodlums, a hierarchy of decorticated wops . . . And everywhere the smell of atrophied gangsters, the dead weight of those dear dead days hanging in the air like rancid ectoplasm . . . You suffocate in the immediate past, still palpable, quivering like an earthbound ghost . . . Here the dream is suffocating, more real than the real, the past actually, incredibly, invading the present."

Note to self: read "The Naked Lunch." Also, upon reading the wiki on Burroughs I find it hilarious that he went to my former roommate's preparatory high school in St. Louis, if only because most of my fellow Von Steuben MSC graduates in Chicago become gangsters, drug-dealers, and, at best, middle-managers at downtown corporations.

Also I'm definitely regretting my decision not to take the Columbia seminar on the Beat generation. REGRET!