Here are some new(ish) records I like, and you should listen to (in no particular order):
WHY? - Eskimo Snow
The xx - xx
Sleep Whale - Houseboat
Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom
Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
Lightning Dust - Infinite Light
Valleys - Sometimes Water Kills People
Note: this is not participation in NaBloPoMo...
I'm just procrastinating (only time I blog). But here's what I'm working on:
Reading my final book of the school year! That being, Garbage: A Poem by A.R. Ammons. Some parts blow my mind, some parts seem kind of poorly written. I guess I'll have more of an idea how I feel about it after I finish it.
Working (poorly) on two major essays/finals. The first is a little 10-15 pager on nature imagery and character formation in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The second is a 20-25 page thing on Moby-Dick and the canon/sociology of literature.
Yes, I chose these topics. I should have just dug myself into a hole.
And of course I've been working at the falafel hut trying to make mad tipz.
That's it, until next time.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
秋学期
So last time I was around here I had intentions of blogging soon after, but yet again months have passed. Alas, I've started graduate school in the CLE and have been living on my own (with 3 crazy art students) in the Heights. So the summer was good and the last few weeks have promised a busy fall semester as I'm still working a bunch with a heavy load of reading piled on.
In saying that, my two classes are pretty crazy polar opposites. My first class is absolutely wonderful and exhibits all of the qualities of the English classes I had Junior year when I decided to switch my major. The teacher is great, the reading list is great, and the two hours fly by. My second class is a sheer torturous two hours of boredom wherein two people raise their hands and ask a simple stupid question about a placement of a comma or an editors word choice and our entire class then is made up of talking about just that. Killlll me. I miss Japanese and a lot of my friends from Kansai are taking over the old Nihon right now in the Jet Programme and torturing me about it via their pictures and such on Facebook. I'd kill just to walk through Shinsaibashi and Namba and eat a good, cheap bowl of katsudon.
But other than that I've been spending too much time at Aladdin's thinking about how I need a job that gives me some sort of teaching/tutoring experience, so today I'm working on my resume and a cover letter. Get me out of that nepotist environment. Someone! PLZ!
And that's just about all I got after two months of no blogging. I read some good books over the summer, the early of which I wrote about HERE, and I even have winter break reading lined up (Zeitoun!). My Birthday was great and I'm officially old (22) and have been called ma'am a handful of times since. The weather is cooling down, my tomatoes are still growing, and Ryan & I have been gearing up for the winter by making some delish brunchy's and dinny's from market & garden food. My grilled cheeses with tomato and basil were amazing and I could live off of Ohio City Pasta and the Souper Market. So good.
In a couple weeks we're jaunting off to Montreal so maybe I'll have pictures for once. After that, Cedar Point, then hibernation.
In saying that, my two classes are pretty crazy polar opposites. My first class is absolutely wonderful and exhibits all of the qualities of the English classes I had Junior year when I decided to switch my major. The teacher is great, the reading list is great, and the two hours fly by. My second class is a sheer torturous two hours of boredom wherein two people raise their hands and ask a simple stupid question about a placement of a comma or an editors word choice and our entire class then is made up of talking about just that. Killlll me. I miss Japanese and a lot of my friends from Kansai are taking over the old Nihon right now in the Jet Programme and torturing me about it via their pictures and such on Facebook. I'd kill just to walk through Shinsaibashi and Namba and eat a good, cheap bowl of katsudon.
But other than that I've been spending too much time at Aladdin's thinking about how I need a job that gives me some sort of teaching/tutoring experience, so today I'm working on my resume and a cover letter. Get me out of that nepotist environment. Someone! PLZ!
And that's just about all I got after two months of no blogging. I read some good books over the summer, the early of which I wrote about HERE, and I even have winter break reading lined up (Zeitoun!). My Birthday was great and I'm officially old (22) and have been called ma'am a handful of times since. The weather is cooling down, my tomatoes are still growing, and Ryan & I have been gearing up for the winter by making some delish brunchy's and dinny's from market & garden food. My grilled cheeses with tomato and basil were amazing and I could live off of Ohio City Pasta and the Souper Market. So good.
In a couple weeks we're jaunting off to Montreal so maybe I'll have pictures for once. After that, Cedar Point, then hibernation.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
新しいのライフ
Summer <3 Mix '09
1. Passion Pit - Smile Upon Me
2. Deerhoof - Snoopy Waves
3. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm
4. Cotton Candy - A Sentimental Song
5. Belle & Sebastian - Simple Things
6. Shugo Tokumaru - Green Rain
7. Bob Nanna - Blueprint
8. Chad VanGaalen - Clinically Dead
9. Yes Please - Love Probe
10. Asobi Seksu - Blind Little Rain
If you want one, let me know. I'm in The Heights now and I'm writing on my new iMac, but these things are for a different post at a later date. Perhaps not too much later.
1. Passion Pit - Smile Upon Me
2. Deerhoof - Snoopy Waves
3. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm
4. Cotton Candy - A Sentimental Song
5. Belle & Sebastian - Simple Things
6. Shugo Tokumaru - Green Rain
7. Bob Nanna - Blueprint
8. Chad VanGaalen - Clinically Dead
9. Yes Please - Love Probe
10. Asobi Seksu - Blind Little Rain
If you want one, let me know. I'm in The Heights now and I'm writing on my new iMac, but these things are for a different post at a later date. Perhaps not too much later.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
。。。
Last night I saw Tokyo! at the Cleveland Film Festival. It was pretty much the Paris, Je T'aime of Japan: three short films by three different directors. It was alright, and I was constantly saying 'Hey! I understood that!' in my head, and was also in shock of the rapid Americanization of the language. Words I have learned in the past few years from my outdated text are now just the katakana equivalent of the English. I imagine that in 100 years, Japanese will strictly be a katakana language, but still an entirely different language than English, i.e. "Where is the Seminar House?" in English, and "Wairu isu sa Seminaa Housu?", or ”ワイルイスサセミナーホウス？” in Japanese. Still unable to be regularly understood by one another. Katakana is ugly, nearly runic, and will surely rid Japan of it's culture of cute. I'm absolutely convinced of this.
In other recent events, I've hit an all-time procrastination low (hence the meaningless blog entry), and haven't been reading much at all, let alone spending time on homework. I knew this time would come! I'm just ready to be done with this last semester so I can send my transcript along to Cleveland State and register for graduate courses! Yeah, that's right, I'm staying in Cleveland. But I think this is a good thing (assuming you're already questioning my decision). It will get me into the city for the first time in my suburban life, and will keep me near the things I love (Ryan, family, friends, Vine & Bean biscuits and gravy), and can't get rid of (Aladdin's, Nighttown, Coventry). Plus, Cleveland is probably the best city of the schools I applied to, as well as the cheapest, and most hood. I should be moving (to the Heights/Yuppyville?) as well as having a big graduation party at home in June. If all goes well, the summer months will only burn a couple tanks of gas for me, rather than 1/week. My Wolfsburg will love me back, and I don't imagine I'll be missing driving over an hour every day just to go to school and work. I'm over it. I'll also be ending my four years of work study in the Admissions office (!!!!), and four years as a DJ and Music Director at WJCU. I'm sad about the latter, but it's time to move on, take a break, and hopefully get involved at WCSB, or find something else to waste my time. Last week I tore some posters off the walls of WJCU (Gwen Stefani & really awful pop/punk groups from years ago), and replaced them with the new (Bonnie Prince Billy, M. Ward, Dan Auerbach). As for the Admissions office, they've treated me well, but it's just time.
Totally unrelated, I would like to mention a funny little Irish lady named Eileen who was one of my managers at Aladdin's for well over a year. As a longtime member of the Sunday opening crew, nearly against my will, I spent many sleepy and jealously beautiful Sunday mornings in the confines of those dank, falafel stinking walls talking with Eileen and sharing fattening cakes and cookies at the expense of Mr. Aladdin himself. She had the guts to teach at innercity schools and tell anyone exactly what was on her mind. She was an awesome and genuine person that will be missed.
The heart, no valentine,
decides to quit after lunch,
the power shut off like a switch,
or a tiny dark ship is unmoored
into the flow of the body's rivers,
the brain a monastery,
defenseless on the shore.
-Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning
In other recent events, I've hit an all-time procrastination low (hence the meaningless blog entry), and haven't been reading much at all, let alone spending time on homework. I knew this time would come! I'm just ready to be done with this last semester so I can send my transcript along to Cleveland State and register for graduate courses! Yeah, that's right, I'm staying in Cleveland. But I think this is a good thing (assuming you're already questioning my decision). It will get me into the city for the first time in my suburban life, and will keep me near the things I love (Ryan, family, friends, Vine & Bean biscuits and gravy), and can't get rid of (Aladdin's, Nighttown, Coventry). Plus, Cleveland is probably the best city of the schools I applied to, as well as the cheapest, and most hood. I should be moving (to the Heights/Yuppyville?) as well as having a big graduation party at home in June. If all goes well, the summer months will only burn a couple tanks of gas for me, rather than 1/week. My Wolfsburg will love me back, and I don't imagine I'll be missing driving over an hour every day just to go to school and work. I'm over it. I'll also be ending my four years of work study in the Admissions office (!!!!), and four years as a DJ and Music Director at WJCU. I'm sad about the latter, but it's time to move on, take a break, and hopefully get involved at WCSB, or find something else to waste my time. Last week I tore some posters off the walls of WJCU (Gwen Stefani & really awful pop/punk groups from years ago), and replaced them with the new (Bonnie Prince Billy, M. Ward, Dan Auerbach). As for the Admissions office, they've treated me well, but it's just time.
Totally unrelated, I would like to mention a funny little Irish lady named Eileen who was one of my managers at Aladdin's for well over a year. As a longtime member of the Sunday opening crew, nearly against my will, I spent many sleepy and jealously beautiful Sunday mornings in the confines of those dank, falafel stinking walls talking with Eileen and sharing fattening cakes and cookies at the expense of Mr. Aladdin himself. She had the guts to teach at innercity schools and tell anyone exactly what was on her mind. She was an awesome and genuine person that will be missed.
The heart, no valentine,
decides to quit after lunch,
the power shut off like a switch,
or a tiny dark ship is unmoored
into the flow of the body's rivers,
the brain a monastery,
defenseless on the shore.
-Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning
Thursday, February 19, 2009
一番二千八！
I have a little bit of downtime tonight since I finished a project for my Chaucer class early (Editions of The Canterbury Tales), so I figured I would post something I've been meaning to post for the last 2 months... My top 10 albums of 2008! At the same time, I'll catch up quickly with what has been going on as of late.
Top 10 (I mean, 15) of 2008:
I've also been working at the admissions office doing loads of data entry and filing, as well as Fady's falafel palace where it's been pretty slow and people have been cheap. Ah, the economy...
I've been reading a lot for my classes (ligitamately) for the first time in four years, and have also been regularly working out for the first time ever at the local YMCA's. Here's a list of the most recent things I've been reading:
And on that note, it's Thursday night so I need to go watch 30 Rock after I down the rest of my White Russian.
Until a few months from now...
Top 10 (I mean, 15) of 2008:
- Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
- Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
- Passion Pit - Chunk of Change
- Dr. Dog - Fate
- Pwrfl Power - Pwrfl Power
- MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
- Lykke Li - Youth Novels
- Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
- Foals - Antidotes
- Lightspeed Champion - Falling off the Lavender Bridge
- Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
- Magnetic Fields - Distortion
- M83 - Saturdays=Youth
- Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing (Guilty pleasure alert!)
- Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
I've also been working at the admissions office doing loads of data entry and filing, as well as Fady's falafel palace where it's been pretty slow and people have been cheap. Ah, the economy...
I've been reading a lot for my classes (ligitamately) for the first time in four years, and have also been regularly working out for the first time ever at the local YMCA's. Here's a list of the most recent things I've been reading:
- The Canterbury Tales: I'm taking a Chaucer course and we're reading most of the Tales along with some other poems and things.
- TS Eliot - The Complete Poems, selected prose, & his biography by Peter Ackroyd: I'm taking a course on Eliot and it's a little much. I love some of his stuff but I hate most of it. My professor just likes reading it aloud. We'll see how it pans out.
- A.S. Byatt - Angels & Insects: I couldn't take all of the rants about ants or the incest.
- Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day: Better than the latter but pretty lackluster. I would rather never read another novel about a butler again unless it's raunchy.
- Plato - Symposium: Changed my life.
- Foucault - The History of Sexuality: What the Foucault?
And on that note, it's Thursday night so I need to go watch 30 Rock after I down the rest of my White Russian.
Until a few months from now...
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