Shall We Dance?

As it begins, so it ends. Packing, rushing, cleaning. Now I look at my room threadbare again, check out, and take the tube to Heathrow.

Don't really know what say except to quote a comment Drew said at the beginning of my blog:

"The first few days are tough (lots of emotional and a good dose of physical/mental pain), but you'll get through them and then you'll be all badass and wonder how things could ever have seemed as rough as you described them when you wrote them here."

"Can You Tell Me Where My Country Lies?"

All packed, just need to fit 5 more things into my luggage....I hope it works and I don't get charged for overweight. Today, the fact I'm leaving really struck me (I guess the alcohol had clouded that last night.

Don't really know what to say, I hope tomorrow I can say it. For now, a paean to Britishness, "Dancing With The Moonlit Night" by Genesis:

"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.

"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
Selling England By The Pound.

Citizens of Hope & Glory,
Time goes by - it's "the time of your life".
Easy now, sit you down.
Chewing through your Wimpey dreams,
they eat without a sound;
digesting england by the pound.

Young man says "you are what you eat" - eat well.
Old man says "you are what you wear" - wear well.
You know what you are, you don't give a damn;
bursting your belt that is your homemade sham.

The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! Till the Grail sun sets in the mould.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.

There's a fat old lady outside the saloon;
laying out the credit cards she plays Fortune.
The deck is uneven right from the start;
and all of their hands are playing apart.

The Captain leads his dance right on through the night
- join the dance...
Follow on! A Round Table-talking down we go.
You're the show!
Off we go with - You play the hobbyhorse,
I'll play the fool.
We'll tease the bull
ringing round & loud, loud & round.

Follow on! With a twist of the world we go.
Follow on! Till the gold is cold.
Dancing out with the moonlit knight,
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout.

Day After Day

Jess left this morning after we had been to a last hurrah BBQ the night before. I almost got trapped in Hackney all by myself at 3 in the morning because I took the N38 night bus the wrong way. PECO finished relatively well, though I was bored and antsy before and through the final haha! I had checked out a few days earlier I think, oops.

But yes, my well laid plans to see everything in London have sort of fallen apart. I just guess I'll need to come back. Today I was going to go to the famous cemetery in the Regency area and take cool photos, but I think I will need to scale it down to going to Notting Hill to buy an obligatory gift for those obligatory gift givers (you know who they are) and buying LSE trademark clothing so my existing stuff won't run out on me down the line.

I can't believe it's nearly over. More thoughts tomorrow before the flight.

The Fellowship is Broken!

...and we overlook the edge of New Jersey--I mean Mordor. I couldn't find a better picture online of everyone's favorite Fellowship breaking up. Well I should say second favorite: ours over here has already splintered. Yes a few people have left already but this is bigger. Last night/yesterday I made the great choice of going around on a pub crawl with Stefan and Sessa. After me getting inebriated and saying reprehensible, shocking, and ballsy things, we finally met everyone on the South bank for one last hurrah: that's because JP flew out today from Heathrow. I almost missed mailing his stuff out because I crashed as soon as I got back and fell asleep and didn't answer my room phone. oops. So now we'll no longer be able to have our foursome lunches at 'spoons and other fun revelries; well at least not in London anymore. The end is really near.

(FYI he called because I had to mail a box for him: came out to 137 quid. Ouch, I need to mail stuff as well)

And I have one last final in PECO which I can't bring myself to study because it is complete and utter bullshit. Seriously, this class has been such a waste, I can't begin to explain. But because it is so messed up, I'm going to end up having to study for it so the bizarreness of it doesn't throw me.

The picture I posted I uploaded first: this is because all these retard space cadets kept finding my blog on Google because of the HP Lovecraft drawing of an Old One. I changed that so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. Random people visiting this blog is ok...to a point. Well better get back to trying to study. Hopefully I'll focus and get into the books so you won't hear from me until after the final. Until then.

One Week Addendum

Oh my God, it's one week left. This just dawned on me as I was taking a shower after the night out. JP is leaving on Monday in 2 days. Have not much to study and then the final comes. Then I myself wrap up and head out.

I guess the gravity of it hit me now and I'm thinking of what it will be like to uproot myself and go back to the States. It's not like I built up a community here of Britons I know, but I built up an existence, a mode of living, a lifestyle, a way, and now I'm going to have to leave that. London will always be here, but the way I did it won't.

Also some other things came into my mind. Hopefully I will make some good posts with this stuff on my mind as I count down to departure.

Oh yeah, so then will I continue my blog after London? I think you will have to wait for another post for the answer to that.

One Week

OK that was waaaaay too fast since I posted two weeks 7 days ago. Wednesday is my last final in Political Economy, which will be ridiculous because the course is very...hmm don't know the word. Out there? Useless? Bizarre? I don't know I think you need to witness Ronny in action to know what I mean.

I went to The Globe (of Shakespeare fame) finally with a group of friends and we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was actually pretty good and pretty funny. Jono said something funny; he said we were seeing a "Romantic Comedy" I didn't think of it that way but I chuckled on the inside. But yes The Globe: very impressive. Built as an exact replica. All started because some rich Yankee came to London int he 80s, asked to see Shakespeare's Globe, was met with empty stares, and told it didn't exist anymore. So he set to it to see it was rebuilt. And despite him and the chief architect passing away before it was finished, they managed to complete the project. I still find it funny it took an indignant American to reinstate a historical part of English culture. I guess the Brits just don't care as much?

Afterwards we went to the Blue Maid for a pint (Jess: "random") and then I mentioned how I had been in a pub, I forget the name, but it was fun even though I went to the bathroom and people were doing coke right there. One bloke even thold me of his friend who ODed and died on 1 kilo of coke. Wasn't really sure what to believe, but I zipped up my pants and got out of the loo. I said there was a hostel right there and my friends said that sounds like Dover Castle and that place was sketchy as hell. I thought it was fine and fun and described the interior and they confirmed that it was it. Then when we were done at the Blue Maid we walked by it and they confirmed it for me. I still think it was fun and fine (Jess: "They can't handle the SOWF EAST!!!") Yeah, we're hardcore.

Talk about doing something wrong for a year and getting away with it. So from that night I come back to the hall and stick in my keycard as usual and open the door and go towards the elevators. Then I hear a door open and a voice behind me say "Mate, you can't just pull open the door, you need to use your keycard!" I knew that was the security guard, so I turned around and told him "No I used it, let me show you" So we both went there and I showed him, and in fact my keycard had not been working! For a whole year I had been somehow managing to yank open the door. Well at least for the last week I'll get it right.

I'M FREE...and freedom tastes of reality...

WHEW! HOO-HA! Two exams in 6 hours in one day. Grueling but at least now I am 3/4's done with my finals. One more on the 11th and I feel great. Not much hanging over my head anymore, even with one final, it feels so much better. Trying to get out to Greenwich tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain: it has been rainy and in the 50s for my recent memory. Well, I guess I got my wish for not hot weather...

Sessa is here to see Stefan. Didn't realize he was coming so early. This is going to be ridiculous: in Istanbul they were so drunk they were talking in gibberish to each other---and understood each other! It's going to be a shitshow!

Mmmm cursing...with strange words! Good thing my parents don't read this. Once I tried to explain to them the concept/meaning of "badass" and "gangsta" and then 10 minutes later I had made no ground whatsoever and jsut gave up. God! I hope I'm not like that when I go over the hill!

Two Weeks

It's Sunday, June 1st. In two weeks, I fly back to my homeland of New Jersey. I didn't think either of those two previous sentences seemed real in my mind for most of the year. It seemed like one distant memory: "Yeah I'll be heading home in June, God knows when that will come around!" Well here it is and time is running out. Better get chopping on my last minute stuff. Except for that damned thing called finals! Turns out I needed to hunker down and study more than I thought I would. The heat is sort of on when it is the only grade you get for the year that counts.

Since it is June 1st that also means the alcohol ban is in effect on public transportation in London. So we spent yesterday on the Circle Line celebrating an historic end of an era: but drinking ourselves senseless on the last car of a Circle Line train. It got really packed: it was estimated before the day that 10,000 people were going to do this. Our car was packed; it was rowdy; it was loud; it was fun. I'll put up a picture to show the pandemonium. At one stop, I saw a lady transit worker approach and everyone else did too and I think everyone took pause for a moment. I couldn't hear what she was saying and so I asked Ben from the Isle of Wight Society (yes this was an official society event) if she was threatening us and telling us to stop. He said she actually was asking us what we were drinking, told one person that she wanted to see his drink finished more quickly, and cheered us on! At another stop, there were two bobbies on the platform and the car hushed itself as they approached the open door and shouted "Listen up! This is bordering on public disorder! This has to stop!" We all hushed and averted our eyes and looked down at the floor. Then what seemed like an eternity, the doors closed and the train started to pull away. The bobbies had turned around and were walking away and as we saw we were safe from their reach we all screamed and shouted and banged on the walls and ceilings. I can just imagine the bobbies' look of disgust or anger or fist waving at our train as we left the station.

One's bladder can only hold so much alcohol so we had to make a stop back at the Temple tube stop after making it around once. Also the fresh cool air was a relief: the car got pretty hot.
Once on again, there were not as many Circle Line trains running. Competing claims of "normal weekend service delays", passenger disruptions due to us, and TFL actively trying to shut down our party were circulating about. Eventually we got on another Circle Line train going the other direction and we ended up getting off at Kings Cross/St Pancras because everything I think was going to pot as the authorities were trying to maintain control.

I was part of history! And if this level of excitement keeps up and I manage to do some more good things before I go, this will be a two weeks definitely to remember.

Music is Love

The title of this post and the album cover on the left is from David Crosby's first solo album "If I Could Only Remember My Name" If you haven't heard it, you need to stop what you are doing now and get on that ASAP. Thank you. I saw "High Fidelity" earlier in Summer Term when I was sort of in a lull and had to deal with life. The movie was "bleh" but the music store scenes were good. Jack Black, as one reviewer said, does steal the show out from John Cusack when they are together. Also I think I recognized 90% of the album covers and music references that appeared in the movie :-X Maybe I am a music elitist like they are...

But there was one cool thing I'd like to do and I saw John Cusack do it in the movie: he arranged his record collection auto-biographically. Is that sick or what? I guess I have too in little bits and pieces. I remember The Doors right before the start of my freshman year of high school when I was blazing through all 1000+ pages of the Lord Of the Rings during that summer sitting outside on the deck. Or Pink Floyd during the winter-into-spring of my sophomore year. Or Spirit and Love or John Coltrane and Charles Mingus in my senior year, trying to sneak it onto the senior section boom box. Conveniently, I rip all my music to my hard drive, so I have dates of when they were all ripped, which is pretty close to when I first got them.

Unfortunately my hard drive is still broken and still haven't had the time to get it repaired. I hope the chances aren't dimming the longer I wait. Also that poses problems for my senior year radio show: what will I play if I don't have the effort to re-burn and re-download everything? I was thinking one half 80s music, the other half prog/psychedelia for the 2 hour radio show set, not set in stone on that one. Also, who will be my co-host? I think I'm going to need to ask people to help me out on this one.

As my drive has been out of commission, I have had the chance to become intimate with the small amount of music I managed to get onto my laptop. And by small, I mean small by my standards, probably for anyone else it would be a full music collection. I'm getting to know Tangerine Dream and now I see why they were the pioneers of electronic music. If you don't happen to know them, stop right now and get a compilation of their Virgin Records years NOW! Besides that, I have been learning to appreciate the 80s, getting into the deeper tracks from The Zombies and listening to my Crosby, Stills & Nash box. And I don't mean the CSN(Y) tracks that everyone knows but stuff by the duo outings of Crosby & Nash and Stills' attempt at a band in Manassas. Don't know those groups? Don't know the song "To the Last Whale"? Stop now and listen to the CSN side projects.

Now I need to get back to studying. Although the hardest final is over, I still have two on the same day and it is a little difficult to prepare to for 2 finls simultaneously like this. I'll be glad when that is over and I can talk to Peter Torre through the telescope and go to Greenwich with Jess. Haha also I got a shout out from Jess in her blog when she said I "exude masculinity and testosterone" Nice.

Settling below the Sky

it was Saturday the 24th, I was a free man. I was out to go food shopping and it was a little after 9PM. The sun had just set a little past the hour, but it was still very light out and it would be for another half hour. The Summer Solstice is on June 20rd this year (actually at 23:59 that day, so cutting pretty close). It was cool out, but pleasant, maybe even warm but it didn't bother me like hotness usually does. It was a good time to stroll.

So why am I saying this? Because I had finished my hardest final in Econometrics and I was done! Well, I still have three more to go, but it felt like a great weight had been lifted off me. Two of them are on June 3rd but I'm not worried. Getting through this was relief beyond relief.

Anyway, I will spare you exam stuff (I know some people don't like that *cough*) So yes the next day I got out a plastic cup for mouthwash and I noticed I only have 3 left. 3 weeks left guys. Time is really running out to do the stuff I want and studying has taken up more time than I thought it would. So that means a mad dash to fit it all in....Greenwich is happening after the double header on the 3rd and hopefully Kew Gardens will come some other time. The sites that show up in songs I might try to do in one massive tube/bus Oystercard runaround. And of course I can't not go to the Tower of London. So little time, so much to see...

So Begins the Task

I think I've studied as much as I can. Well probably more like study burnout. Tomorrow is 'metrics. I plan on going to sleep at a decent hour, waking up at a decent hour, looking over some stuff, doing the final, and then getting some well deserved dinner and Indiana Jones IV. See you on the other side.

When the Music's Over

Well, now I have hit panic mode. Slightly. Bear with me. I've been studying Econometrics (affectionately called 'metrics by those suffering through it) and now I have less than a week to the final (Friday)...and I still haven't done all that I want. It's bizarre how I've had more time to study for this one final than what time I usually get for all my finals at Georgetown. Oh yeah, also the equation above is the joy known as the adaptive expectations model and Koyck transformations. Looks fine: until you have to derive it from time series equations...

But yes the other thing is people are now starting to have their finals, and I'm hearing feedback. Feedback like "this is the worst experience in my life, worse than when my grandfather died" Ouch. And I thought I was going to do fine. I still might, just it's a little disconcerting when you feel like you are running out of study time and people around you feel like they are getting majorly owned by their finals.

In addition, there was stuff I wanted to see while I'm here, before I go. But I hope I studying doesn't require me to be so busy I never get time to see those last few things, or do those last few things (like our Primrose hill picnic which got called off due to rain) It seems like everyone is going to be buried up to their noses in their books until the end of the year. Hopefully we can fix that, but until then, back to studying!

I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!!

Why the funny title you ask? As Jess said our Fortnight (Central) Eurotrip is too massive to tell or write down in one sitting, so you'll have to hear anecdotes as they come up. Our last night in Istria and Croatia, we went to eat at Hotel Valsabbion, what our Fodor's Croatia/Slovenia travel guide called: "the best restaurant in Istria, if not all of Croatia." First finding it: I drove madly up and down the coastal road in our Renault Twingo, vainly looking for our beloved Valsabbion. We even found their competitor that was "right up the road" but no Valsabbion. Finally I noticed on the directions the town was split into roman numeraled districts and then we worked our way to Valsabbion and found it had been that extremely glitzy 5-star place that had a VIP carpet to the curb for their diners' fancy luxury and sports cars!...as we drive up in our budget rental Renault Twingo... As we park and walk up, we see there is a microscopic placard on the wall announcing that this indeed is Valsabbion. We enter and we are stunned by its grace and elegance: by God, this is the best restaurant in all of Croatia! We were confused/humbled by the menu and by the fact our unsophisticated minds could not decipher how the menu was supposed to be read and which items were appetizers and which were entrees. Also we felt woefully under dressed in our blue jeans, but then a man came and sat at the table next to us, wearing a black t-shirt with "Stoned to the Bone" written across it and the picture of an x-rayed skeleton smoking a joint. We felt much better after seeing this.

Ah yes I ramble: so what does this have to do with the title of the post?!? Well, they had a mix CD which was fine; the only problem was it lasted 20 minutes and was playing on repeat. It had the Bee Gees, Celine Delon, some unknown Italian Tenor, and, of course my favorite, Disco Inferno by The Trammps!!! I was so enthused that the song was playing, (and playing every 20 minutes at that!) that I started to sing along to my favorite line every time: I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!! (lyrics) I think Jess had it about up to here and was ready to kill me/had to grab at me in order to stop singing. I was sad when they changed the mix CD towards the end of our dinner. Yes that is why the 20 minute song rotation was so killer: Valsabbion is one of the leaders in the restaurant industry's return to "slow food" so that meant our dinner went on for over 3 hours (you calculate that and the mix CD in your head...) My liking of some disco songs I think is one of my dirty little pleasures, but I know why I have a soft spot for such a secret enjoyment: killer bass parts. Wondering what I mean? Type in "insert song bassline" into youtube of a disco song and you'll see what I mean. So back to Valsabbion. How was it? Exquisite. Great wine, great food, samplers, everything. Check out Jess's album for photos.

Yes my day has sort of been productive: I got back upstairs from doing laundry and thought: hey blog time! I was inspired because of a realization about laundry while I was doing it--wait, did I tell this story already?. I repeat stuff...a lot, in case you haven't noticed this from all the time you've known me. Here's a great example. We went to a sushi place by Jess's hall near Burrough Market for her 21st birthday (even though it wasn't, just so we could find an excuse to celebrate it over here). So I order miso soup to start, as usual(I'm also very predictable). When it comes there is no spoon, I go "urrrrrhhh?" look for a spoon, turn and ask Jess what to do, and then think aloud should I use my chopsticks. Jess laughs because last time a few months ago when we were at the sushi place, I had the EXACT same reaction and response, even down to the motions and phraseology. Creepy.

Anyway, so back to laundry. The machines suck: they cost too much, you always need change, and there is no GOCard. I stick it to the administration by using their staff dryers for free: that way my clothes get dried in 35 minutes for free instead of me wasting pounds and taking hours to dry the stuff in the regular crappy dryers. Also for a dorm with 13 stories (they named the first floor M so they wouldn't have to number an unlucky 13th floor) they only have 6 washers and 6 dryers. Lame. But there is an upside. There seems to be a zen-like relaxing quality to doing laundry and folding clothes while listening to music on headphones, like Jan Garbarek. Really relaxing time indeed, so much so I can write this post despite life going by me.

My ML summer job is not looking good; I need to play hardball as last ditch effort to get them to accept me even though I don't want to pay $1000 per credit earned and take courses I have no time for. I might work for old latin teacher in his new language teaching company. That could be a cool job; plus I get to work with him again. I remember the first time I saw him, I thought it was a complete jackass, but he ended up being one of my favorite teachers ever. And he grew a beard too haha!

Yes revision is...not coming along, but at least I am going to the 'metrics lectures. Also it's really starting to get warm here...uncomfortably warm. I hope we get some cooler weather before I leave in June or else I am going to lose it. Also we still need to shrug off inertia and do stuff before we leave. For example, JP and I came up with the great idea to see Iron Man. The not so great part of that idea: we forgot to invite Jess and Stefan. So I bring it up with Jess and as soon as I open my mouth, I realize the debacle that has transpired. So Jess says something to the effect of "Oh I wouldn't like to have seen it, I only am just a huge fan of Marvel comic characters, you fucking asshole!" We're still trying to rectify this one. Also there was the suggestion for a trip to Normandy to make it up to someone who got screwed over by someone else (names withheld to protect us) However, I have a few reservations because this will be in my week between two different final days. Plus I had been thinking of going to Istanbul...

The Future Isn't What It Used to be

I think I had said in my last entry that I would post soon and post more about the trip: I think I lied about those two goals, which have whithered, crashed, and burned since I last posted an entry. Oops! I guess blame revision, exam studying, farewell parties, the crappy exchange rate, and absinthe for everything, I swear! Getting back into the groove was definitely more difficult than I thought. I'm lucky 'metrics has revision sessions because those are a lifesaver and give me an incentive to fake studying. And Lat Am also needs weekly comments due! And it has its last lecture the first day of my finals. What happened? I don't know. Inertia from 6 weeks of break is still trying to be shrugged off. I promise it will when we get down to brass tacks (or brass tax, your pick)

There was probably an earlier blog post where I was ruminating about the future, life, fate, values, etc. I don't remember I rambled a hell of a lot and I apologize if you tuned out. One question I was thinking about was uncertainty and complexity of life: is it real and something that has just now come to light or was it just me overreacting to everything? Well the verdict seems to be that yes, everything has gone to hell in a hand basket and nothing is as nice and neatly packaged as I thought it was. However it's not as bad as I thought, no cause for dread. I'm still alive, functioning, and enjoying my time, so what's to worry? Maybe now I am having reverse integration problems as my time runs out here and now I need to get back to life and routine of the Tri-State area (NJ, NY, CT) for the summer and then Georgetown for my final year. I guess you'll hear about that soon enough.

So looking at the summer what am I doing? I was accepted to the Merrill Lynch internship! Nice! But the problem is they won't let me do it unless it is for credit and Georgetown won't let me do it for credit unless I take some Management course and pay them $1000/credit. I really could care less about credit I don't need, but everyone wants everything from me. I'm trying some last ditch effort things to attempt to salvage whatever chances I have left, but it looks as though my plans have fallen apart for summer. But luckily I have a few tricks up my sleeve, other opportunities being pursued. I can always become a GOP operative for Bergen County (no joke!) or work for a start up company. You'll hear from me about that soon.

I'm surprised I'm able to type at all: my fingers hurt and I keep hitting the wrong keys. You know what that means: I just returned from a day of rock climbing! So Jess hangs out with her climber friends and does elitist climber things (hehe Jess is going to kill me when she reads this). So the last time I had climbed really (not counting that rip off Chuck E. Cheese thing in South Carolina last summer that I went up once) was in middle school with friends in the Shawangunk Mountains (or as the locals call them The Gunks). So I wondered if I would get put to shame by Jess and other climbers. Jess I guess was feeling magnanimous and merciful, so she started us on some bouldering before we did top rope climbing (I sure as hell as in no position to do lead climbing). So we did runs switching off, ran into some of her friends (she's a popular one, Jess is) and then by the time I looked at a clock again, 3 hours had gone by. By this time fatigue had set in and although nothing hurt, my strength was failing and I felt like someone had beat me with a meat tenderizing hammer, as I felt like mush. So the verdict? I actually did pretty well considering I have not climbed in ages. I was able to keep up with Jess's pace: I think we both had a pretty good day climbing. Maybe if I get time and more money, I'll go again (hah if she lets me: her friends I think mistook me for a significant other, so she'll have to deal with that one!)

Since I can scratch that off my list of stuff to get done while I'm over here across the Pond, here is the remaining stuff I can think of at the moment:
-Volleyball with D6 in Hyde Park, complete with our Darnall shirts
-Park picnic in the park hill right above Regents Park
-Maybe see a West End show with Jess (or with others too but she seems to be the only one adventurous enough to try this stuff out)
-go to Cockfosters and get photos with signs
-shoot more with the ULU Rifle Club at the range if I can
-go to more famous bars and my usually hangout spots one more time
-Miscellaneous sights in london to see (like locations that show up in songs and Tower of London)

Unsettled Settling In

It feels like I have been away for a while: probably because it has been 6 weeks. Things feel a bit up in the air and unstable right now and I'm still trying to get re-acclimated (hell, it feels like I have been away for something like a summer break and now I need to come back and do finals!!!)

There will be a more thorough post soon (maybe tomorrow if you are lucky!) But in the meantime I will borrow a line from Jess and say pictures say a thousand words. So here are some links to my facebook albums

Salzburg and Wien - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112988&l=b8b32&id=1409498

Buda Pest - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112998&l=2450f&id=1409498

Zagreb - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113012&l=b340e&id=1409498

Istria 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113101&l=008cd&id=1409498

Istria 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113102&l=4637d&id=1409498

In case they don't work, you can go to Jess's picture site, she has some stuff that I don't have. Also Picasa is awesome and I need to get on that

http://picasaweb.google.com/jess87rx

So hopefully this will hold you over. Until next time.

Let's...Go...TRIPPIN'!!!

Yes, I know I suck at updating the blog....hmmm worthwhile news. I finished Lovecraft (I have been called out as a nerd for doing so. See the self-deprecating things I go through in order to get you this blog?!?!) Then I began the "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman (Golden Compass for those of you who that just drew a blank from). It's really good: even better and more gory. Childhood drunkenness and vomiting. Bears eating people's hearts. Heads getting crushed. Guillotines. How can the movie beat that? Seriously.

But the real reason why I post (and origin for the title of this entry) is because I begin my Eurotrip with my "travel companion", the illustrious Jessica Gitner, at 4AM tomorrow. We will fly to Salzburg, Austria then train to Wien, then Buda Pest, then down for a quick stopover at Zagreb, Croatia. Then transfer to a rental car in Rijeka, which I will drive (yes, I know how to drive stick) Then we will reach Rovinj on the Istrian Peninsula on the coast and drive to other various small town. Then our final day and overnight will be spent in Pula and we will fly out again...all at the end of two weeks. So wish me luck and see you on the flip-side!

At The Mountains of Madness

So what have I been up to for the past few days? Settling in at home seems to be the running theme. It's nice to relax. I'm glad I made the decision to stay home as long as I did. Yes, I do miss out on the Amalfi coast outside of Naples with all the rest of the crew, but I couldn't see myself coming back home for Easter and then making an about-face turnaround and return to Europe and non-stop vacation traveling. The pace is much slower here and that is a nice change from the fast pace that I have been going at recently. Also it is nice to be home in New Jersey and back in all my old prowlings.

I'll elaborate more what I have been doing at home. Met up some Regians: always tons of fun doing that. I had always thought NYC was an expensive town, but now that I returned this time around my perceptions have changed. I was able to get a massive sushi lunch (about 8 sushi pieces and 2 rolls plus miso soup and a Kiran beer) for $10. And then there was a great bar on St Mark's Place which had happy hour $3 beers. If I tried to do this in London, both by converting into dollars and staying in Pound Sterling prices, I probably would starve and lose a few belt sizes (actually I think I have already done that).

I was going to bore you with the Regian fare we did that night in the city (I assure you, Regians would only find it enjoyable and relish doing it) but instead I will answer something that hs probably been on your mind for a while: what the hell is that weird thing in the picture on the side of the blog? The title of this post explains where it is from: HP Lovecraft's novella "At The Mountains of Madness". Those are the aliens that are discovered by the haplessly ignorant Antarctic explorers before they realize the dreadful significance of their discovery--brrrrr! I get chills thinking about the story: the dramatic irony is killer. I have some omnibus volumes of HP Lovecraft's work and I have been making my way through them. I have been reading this volume since I got back stateside and have been reading them at 3AM in my basement all along. And then embarrassing to say, I get slightly scared. Which is completely ridiculous because it is a fictional story. But hear me out first!!! The narrators in all these stories philosophically seem to resemble me: intelligent, learned, highly educated, rationalist, well-versed in the Classics, traditionalist, and skeptical. So these narrators start the story being completely incredulous and then as the story progresses, more and more of a mountain of evidence lands on them showing them their conception of knowledge and the world is entirely wrong. Supernatural (or as it may be beyond our meager abilities of scientific knowledge) malevolent forces suddenly become apparent and the narrator nearly loses his sanity at the impending doom of humanity and the Earth that this discovery entails. Examples: quintillion year old ancient alien beings that created life on on Earth here by accident and still remain hidden away in the wilderness and secret underground cities maintain contact with groups of individuals in occult and witchcraft groups who continue to do the bidding of their evil masters, preserve the dark arts, and prepare the world for the future return and domination of these evil beings. I guess what makes it so believably scary is that Lovecraft writes these stories with the narrator's voice first appearing skeptical and Lovecraft also tries to make the science and events in the stories so believable and realistic that when the "fictional" happens, you feel like you have discovered some great secret horror that should have been left unturned and forgotten.

So yes. I finish a short story like such at 3 in the morning alone in my basement, all quiet and motionless. So then I realize I am being stupid for staying up so late and decide to go to bed finally. But I need to get to my room first. So I make my way through the dark cautiously, turning around multiple times even though I hear nothing. I sort of start when I see something weird in front of me which ends up being a stray piece of furniture. And of course we have a good amount of windows in our house. So when I go by a large set, like in the kitchen or living room, I make sure I am facing the windows and keep my back to the room or turn on lights and quickly dart through! Haha I know this must sound ridiculous, but stuff like this always used to scare me when I was little and I guess to a certain extent it still does. But there is hope: I only seem to get this way after I finish reading Lovecraft, so if I stop doing that, I should be fine then!

"It's Been A Long Long Time, Hasn't It?"

Wow.


I let this go without an update for an entire month? I think the recent Georgetown loss to Daivdson in the NCAA tournament was the catalyst for me to write here (we didn't even make Sweet 16 goddamn!) Hmmm, I almost don't even know where to begin with this.

I guess I will try to be short and sweet and give quick summations.

So my last post saw me scrambling to go off to see Amsterdam. Really nice quaint city. The rumors of decadence, debauchery, prostitution, and drugs is highly exaggerated. It really is only confined to the Red Light District, and even then, I didn't think it was so bad. Hell, I even managed to get coffee from an Amsterdam coffee shop, can you believe that? I think every single Dutch person we met spoke very very good English. Example: while we were trying to find an authentic Dutch restaurant (seems like it almost doesn't exist: Argentine steakhouses are another matter all together) we asked in a butcher's shop and the attendant behind the counter said, in response to us asking if she spoke English, "I don't speak English very well, but I'll try my best" Understatement! We went around and saw the Van Gogh Museum which would have been good except other museums had his best pieces and so the namesake museum was at a bit of a disadvantage. I saw the Night Watch and I was psyched because there is a song about it by the band King Crimson. There is a lyric from that song that I thought was very fitting: "Dutch Respectability" Indeed the Dutch seem like a very kind, helpful, intelligent, industrious people and I think Amsterdam has gotten an unfair seediness ascribed to it. So in sum, yes we did find a Dutch restaurant eventually. And yes, there are tons and tons of bicycles: it seems to be the preferred method of travel.

On March 1st I saw the play "Speed the Plow" by David Mamet with Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey. It was really a lot of fun and their acting was superb. Their chemistry was really good and it went from one moment to the next seamlessly and effortlessly. If this was in the States or in New York City, it would have gotten a tony or something. I really think plays are much superior in London. But NYC has the upper hand on musicals, definitely.

So after Jess and I arrived back, then the spring break D6ers came and we went to our usual Indian restaurant on Brick Lane, Monsoon. That night I went to sleep feeling a little weird and then it started: Gastric flu. For most of the week I was not only sick and out of commission, but sitting on a toilet as well. I'll leave out the gory details: it was not pleasant to put it lightly. To add more to tragedy, Jess seemed to contract a few days later an even worse version of the virus that affected her even more and she ended up having to go to the hospital. I was worried for her--and for our Eurostar train reservations to Paris. But I swear, I was entirely concerned about her health!

In the throes of illness Jess braved with me to see The Zombies in concert for the 40th anniversary of their magnum opus Odessey and Oracle. The concert was awesome. They played the entire album plus other hits like She's Not There, Tell Her No, I Love You, and a cover of Sticks and Stones. Plus they played the Argent song "Hold Your Head Up" Plus they had 4 of the original members (one passed away) and Colin Blunstone, the lead singer, played 3 songs from his first solo LP which had a string quartet on stage. Awesome! I bought that album as soon as I got back home to the States and I love it. A really great find. And people ask me why I always keep searching for more and more music: to find a great beautiful song that I would have missed otherwise. I could rattle off a huge list of fantastic songs that I found that never get any radio airplay and only because I kept on casting my net, I found them. Back to the concert, I was impressed that they hauled out some brass players and yes, a mellotron!!! to completely reenact the album. Chris White impressed me because he sort of looks nerdy with his glasses and out of shape middle aged, but he still could play and sing really well AND he wrote half the Odessey & Oracle album. Impressive. It was a really great concert and I'll always remember it

By the final week of our term, everyone had recovered and we were doing our last bit of work to finish up for term. However more tragedy was on its way: my external hard drive died :-( I think the internal disc is still intact but I have tried without any luck to recover the data. Hopefully going to a company won't cost me too much. 450 gigabytes of music. Damn. Hah and Daniel was nice enough to call it "karmic justice" Thanks!

Now that everyone was recovered, Jess and I did our one day Paris trip. We got a French breakfast special in a cafe right next to Gare du Nord. Then we hopped on a yellow line tour bus which gave us a tour of the main sites of the city AND a way to get around all day (as you can hop on and offa s much as you want). We saw all the main sites plus went around the Musee d'Orsay which is incredible (both for the impressionist art contained within as well as for the architecture as it used to be a train station and is decorated as such) We went to Notre Dame, by Les Champs-Elysees (Jess- dah-duhduhdah yes you do! haha), L'Arc de Triomphe, Ivalides, Trocadero, but we didn't really want to stop at Le Tour Eiffel, and finally we ended in Montmartre by Sacre-Coeur. There we walked around, saw art, and had crepes. I was a little bummed that we didn't see Pere Lachaise cemetery with Jim Morrison's grave but maybe I'll save that for next time when I have kids....or not...

That night we met up with Reed, who is studying at Science Po, for dinner but we didn't watch our time as we ate away. So we went back to the Metro (which oddly runs on rubber tires and not rails!) but the train seemed to be a long time away and we were worried we would miss the train so we went up to get a taxi. I don't know how but there were no free cabs to stop for us: it was horrible luck. Jess and I got to Gare du Nord running to the train at 9:10PM (it left at 9:13) but the staff was standing around and said we had missed the train. I guess the looks of utter dejection we had on our faces plus the downcast nature of my pleas to figure out how to get out of the city brought us sympathy from the staff and they allowed us to exchange our tickets for the first train out of Paris the next day. So we went back to Reed's dorm and stayed there. I set my alarm on my mobile to wake up for 4:50AM so we had enough time to exchange the tickets and get through security. Then before we went to sleep there was an argument over a mat and where certain parts of us sat on it in relation to each other. I won't go into details. So in the middle of the night, I wke up as my arm had fallen asleep and I look at the time and I see it is 530AM!!! My phone was still on London time which was an hour behind! So we scrambled and got on the RER and God only knows how we did it, but we made the train. I think Jess said multiple times "Jared, we're not doing this again when we travel" Ooops! :-X But in sum, it was ridiculously fun and fast paced and we saw everything we wanted to. Never a dull moment when Jess and I travel. I wonder what is in store for us for our 2 week Central European odyssey in April...

So then that day I flew home and the next I was off to Georgetown for a long weekend. It was good to be back on the Hilltop and it will be nice to be back there for Senior year. And now I'm relaxing at home, in a position to be able to this long overdue blog post. Coming up will be more news on what I am doing this break and if reality and stuff I need to do over on this side of the pond has caught up with me yet. I'll try to be more timely in the future. My apologies. Though I have no idea who reads this anymore.

Quick Assessment of the Strategic Situation

Apologies if I said this already: not living if you're not living on the edge.

Hehe yes it is apt: tons of fun and plenty going on over here in London. So here is a quick recap of some things that have happened and will happen before I head home for Easter. JP dragged me along to the ULU (University of London Union) Rifle Club's range day at a shooting range at Blackfriars. You would never think in such a place with such strict gun control they would allow rifles, much less a rifle range in a city like London. It's very sketchy to get to because you need to walk downstairs to the Embankment and then open up this old gate and everything looks rundown, like where homeless people live (actually homeless people or as they call them here rough sleepers, live here, so the description is apt) and you go down these dark stairs and it is all dirty. Finally you get to the bottom with a door, ring a buzzer, a metal peephole opens and they let you in. After you get in you see they have a metal bar across the door and a 25 (or 50, I forget) yard firing range. It really looks like a holdout for a zombie apocalypse. We fire .22 caliber rifles at paper targets. Lots of fun. Really my only chance to to the ever really, so I plan on coming here as much as I can. It is a little pricey to join the club but the money I see it as going to protect gun rights so why not fight the fascists here in Britain.

I went to a bar called PJ's that Adam found with the very idiosyncratic bartender called Tony who is actually an Algerian. This time around we met this guy named Yussef who works for the BBC. Really neat guy. Besides, Tony makes damn good a Old Fashioned and Margarita! We'll see how often I head back.

This weekend there is an Isle of Wight "meeting" (or should I say party) at Ben's house at the end of the 188 Bus. Kate Davey is here before the onslaught of D6 in a week or two. I have to laundry very soon because--I'm going to Amsterdam with Jess this week! We plan on having a good time, no worries. Then on March 1st I see a play at the famous Old Vic called Speed the Plow with Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey. I wonder if I should shout out weird quotations from movies like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension to Goldblum. We'll see. Then there is the Muse opening party (I got something published! w00t!) then my last essay for LatAm and any course this year. A Toqueville Society event with Rick Santorum speaking. Then try to make it to Paris for a day trip (leave really really early, like 5AM!) and then I leave for home.

Sorry for the rushed end, as things come up they will be described in detail. Because now I need to have lunch before I head off shooting at Blackfriars so see you later. Ciao!

Spring in February and Updates

Well, I would think it was spring from the unseasonably warm weather here, but it is still February. However it is nearly the end of February and I will be home less than two weeks into March. And Michael came to stay for nearly a week but it seemed like I barely saw him, gave him the unconventional non-touristy tour of London, and then he left. Time flies indeed.

So yes, I survived almost two straight weeks of visitors, though I got a little run down over the course of it. Suprisingly/luckily, work hasn't built up, in fact I am still on schedule. Odd. I did get more of my London explorations out of the way with my parents and Mike. Kensington and Abbey Road to be more specific. I still need someone to go with me to the Tower of London. I'm sure I'll find someone.

Today I went back to Abbey Road, but didn't walk across the famed street. Why? Because 20 other people were doing it, nearly getting hit by cars and I didn't want to feel like a stereotypical tourist. Oh well. Haha at least I walked up to the open door and tried to get into Abbey Road!! Alas it was locked though.

Then I explored the "northern" (relatively) area of London from St Pancras/King's Cross/Euston to Regent's Park to Baker Street to Edgware/Marylebone to Paddington. I wanted to see The Kingsway Hotel where I stayed 13 years ago, but I only took note of the street and not the address and little did I know the whole street is filled with hotels and it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Ugh, I guess I have to try again, but luckily the 7 bus runs from near my dorm so it should be easy to get to. I wish I used these buses earlier, they really are convenient and get you to places where you would normally have to transfer and get held up with if you used the tube. So I have a few museums/sites to see, but besides those I only have a few neighborhoods left to hit. I want to see Holborn Aqueduct again and see how it all connects. That was one big mind-fuck when I figured that all out and I need to revisit it and take it all in. Barbican/Farringdon is another (though if it is bad, I won't stay long). Maida Vale, Cricklewood, Willesden Green, and Turnham Green: all you music fans will know the songs these places are associated with. When I saw these names I almost fell out of my chair. It's nice to be able to put two and two together finally. I might see some places where album/band photo shots were taken. Kew Gardens and other parks I want to hit as well. Primrose Hill right north of Regent's Park was amazing and as JP and I concurred, we are going back for a picnic and bringing people.

Seems like no rado show again this week :-( I'll let you know if that changes. So much music to play, so little time to play it in....I have enough time to see the rest of what I want in London, right? hehe we'll see

Parental Units and A Supreme Court Justice

So, in this hectic week my parents and aunt and uncle came to visit me in London. While they were settling in however, I managed to sneak away to see Associate Justice Antonin Scalia give a lecture at LSE. The main point of his speech was how judges should not be activist, not try to legislate from the bench, not inject their values into their rulings, and not think of the Constitution as a living document. He thought judges should also defer to the democratic process on what should and shouldn't be legal. This all seemed to conflict in my head with the Libertarian values that I hold. So how do inherent individual rights hold up in this?

I got up some courage (no liquid courage needed) and asked him since the 14th and 15th amendments were passed in the 1860s and Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 affirmed the "separate but equal" doctrine, then wasn't Brown v Board of Education in 1954 an activist ruling going against almost 100 years of precedent? I was a little nervous in speaking (I wonder if it showed), understandably because I was speaking directly to the highest government official I have ever seen in person. He laughed and said I was one of those people who he gets every speech that waves "the bloody red shirt of Brown!" He then proceeded to answer my question. The second half made sense: one example does not make a trend or justify judicial activism all the time. Fair enough and good point: 1 good decision due to activism doesn't outweigh if there are 100 bad ones. Yet his first part of the answer was complete bullshit. He said if he were on the Supreme Court in Brown, he would have voted with the majority decision because he would have agreed with the dissenting opinion of Justice John Marshall Harlan in Plessy. But you can't get a precedent from the minority dissenting opinion!!! After he finished, I heard another voice ask about stare decisis. And sure enough I recognized that voice: backup from Kris Rodgers, a classmate from high school! He heard my question and was trying to further prod Scalia. God I love Regians. Afterwards, Rodgers and I both agreed a dissenting opinion is not stare decisis, so we have no idea of Scalia makes himself sleep at night with that. In retrospect, since he thinks that rights and law descend from the democratic process, I should have asked him what he thinks about the 9th Amendment. Oh well, for next time!

His views sort of alarmed me looking back on the speech afterwards. Scalia said shouldn't put values into jurisprudence, (I agree: last thing I need is a judge saying you have a right to a car or a TV or some other socialist corruption of the meaning of rights) but I think libertarian values are inherently contained in the Constitution and Scalia's strict reading misses a good deal of value structure built into the constitution. I like Scalia and agree with a lot of what he said. Somehow this came to my mind, that people view me as a conservative (the implications of supporting Scalia brought this up in my mind). But Riddle me this, Joker! If I'm conservative would I be the following:
-anti-Patriot act
-pro-gay marriage (well more like anti-state-sponsored-marriage, go to the church of your choice, leave marriage to church, civil unions to state) [Marriage is a semantics game, anyway because a civil union is just a marriage that isn't called that. And also, the standards of marriage have evolved and differed between the church and state like marriages between different races. More about how state institutionalized marriage is contrived here)
-pro-drug legalization
-pro-immigration
-pro-pollution/Pigouvian taxation (but only for replacing others, like income tax)
-anti-draft in the militaru
-pro-normalization with Cuba (it would actually hasten the end of regime if we weren't so damn stubborn)
-pro-privacy rights
-Anti-Guantanamo Bay, torture, and terrorism laws

So yes, since I support the above, am I conservative? Is that what makes a person what he is? Or is it more of how you carry yourself than how you align politically? Maybe this is just more reason why labels are completely empty and meaningless.

The Republicans in turmoil and my family in London was a microcosm of the Republican implosion. My Aunt and Uncle don't want McCain; Janel said she would go Democrat even for Hillary in the November election and was for socialized health care. My uncle just seemed unsure or unimpressed. Dad went for his guts and voted McCain, My mom went with Romney. So yes, that was the introduction to my parents and aunt/uncle's 5 day stay in London. I was really busy going around with them to see some sites, but we went to less stereotypical places because all of us had been to London before and we wanted to catch the stuff on the periphery that we had missed. It is difficult when adults don't run on college time: I would meet up with them at 9 in the morning and go around all day until 11 at night...and then not go to sleep until later. So yes it got very tiring very quickly, especially because we were always constantly in motion going around London. It was good to see them, even though I will be back in a month. I think my parents and aunt/uncle enjoyed it. They were impressed with my navigation skills around the city. They must think I have become a true native: in a way, I have.

Progress; And So It Begins

So this past weekend, I took a walk into the East End of London and The City. I walked from the Temple Tube Stop, all the way along Fleet/Ludgate Hill/Cannon/Tower Hill Street(s) to the Tower of London, then up to Spittalfields which unfortunately was closed, took a bus along the northern edge of The City along Holborn Aqueduct, and went to the parks up by Russell Square. And I think I got all this done in under 4 hours! So now, here are my final areas left to hit:

-Barbican/Farringdon neighborhoods and other various things west of Liverpool Street
-the King's Cross-St Pancras/Euston/Regent's Park/Baker St Axis (this could be one nice long day walk that I might even be able to make it to Edgware and Paddington.
-Maida Vale and Kew Gardens and other parks that I am missing on the outskirts of the city

Maybe I'll hit some of this places with Mike (221B Baker St is a must-see) and my parents. So now I am on to attempting work before the onslaught of visitors and merrymakers arrive.

In other news, one day I went into kitchen and got dinner from my row in the fridge. After I paused for a second thinking about how my row looked, I sat down to eat and my flatmate came in to make dinner herself. When she opened the fridge, she said she was missing two yogurts. Then I realized why I paused as well and went back to the fridge and saw that I was missing yogurt too! Then another flatmate came in and he noticed someone had stolen a whole pack from him! We sort of guessed the reason: our flat door has been open because the flat across from us had their shower completely gutted and they had to use ours. We all figured out when one of them came over to shower (it had been earlier that day) they took our yogurt back! Now we are looking for a yogurt-eating kleptomaniac in Flat E....but to add insult to injury I woke up this morning to find our flat's shower had been completely gutted too and now we would have to use another flat's shower. Completely lame...although now maybe we can launch a counter-attack and rescue operation on their kitchen for our missing yogurts...

Another Month In & Musical Geekiness

Wow again I am surprised that a month has gone by so quickly and in a few days my parents aunt/uncle and Mikey Lavilla will be here in London. And then even more fun continues. Somehow I am going to crack down on all the work before visitors arrive (God knows how) and in all of this I am going on an epic walk through London again. I hit the West End and Westminster last time. Now I am going to head east. We'll see where fate and fortune bring me.

This past Monday, I had an extra long Radio show because the DJ before me asked me to fill in for him: of course I obliged. Jess I think summed up the spirit of my show best: "'It's about mud killing people in a medieval totalitarian society...but I'm not really sure' is what I heard when I tuned into your show. You achieve nerd status more thoroughly than I can ever hope to." Yes, I got really pretentious doing a 2 hour long show focusing on progressive rock. Oops!

But this coming Monday will be a good show: I have a special theme planned that I think people will like...this may even be one of my more accessible shows for the unwashed masses!

To add to my musical nerdiness, I would like to talk about some discoveries I made. First, the band called Tangerine Dream: amazing ambient/electronic music from the 70s/80s. Really, this is some great stuff. People ask me why I have so much music and keep constantly trawling for more. Tangerine Dream and a conversation I had with a friend in NYC sum it up the best. What if there was the perfect song out there, but you never found? Some of the stuff I have found and loved, if I hadn't been adventurous I would have never come across. There are so many great diamonds in the rough (some from stuff even out of print on CD!!) that I could fill up pages. So my search continues and I find music like Tangerine Dream that blows my mind.

Another musical discovery, which may give a hint for the theme of the show this Monday. I always said my favorite rock instrument is the mellotron (want to know what songs contain it?) but now I found something awesome: the first sampler/synthesizer known as the Fairlight CMI. Not cheap (it cost £25,000 when first realized in 1980) it really was hard to come by. But musicians like Peter Gabriel (Shock the Monkey was made from 60 different pieces strung together on the Farilight [Download here and make a free log in name in order to remix "Shock the Monkey" yourself!) and Tears for Fears and producers like Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes (of The Buggles and "Video Killed The Radio Star" fame) made it very very popular. It was very unique in that it had a light wand and DOS computer screen on which, the you could draw the sound waves and the decays of the sounds. It also had a massive (at the time) sample library. Here are some samples that you may recognize hearing in songs. And of course songs, which once you realize were made with the Fairlight CMI, you will never forget its distinctive sound.

So yes, thank you for taking my musical odyssey detour. See you next blog post!

Life In The Fast Lane

A little too fast this past weekend. I'll do the fast version: Chelsea Wharfs = really nice residential condos overlooking the Thames. Spent some fun times there. Then spent some more fun times in a club/pub in South Kensington called Cavanaugh's (spelling/correct name?). I save a bunch of us from getting trampled by two drunks guys getting into a brawl. After having drank too much, JP and I almost get caught relieving ourselves in an alleyway by bobbies in a van. Close call. I get back to my room and start acting like I wasn't doing so hot, which I wasn't. All hell breaks lose. My apologies if you were on the receiving end of it. Despite rumours to the contrary, reports of my misfortune/death have been greatly exaggerated. My apologies again. Also I need to chill out slightly: it was too much that night. Though I have had more or the same amount other nights so I don't know what went wrong this time. Either way, less drinking is probably a good idea. I'm already plotting with people how to drink our pints in Leo's when we get back to Georgetown since we have become so accustomed to it here.

In other news, Jack was here and that was fun to see him again. Soon enough even more people will be here. Plus I will go to Paris eventually, so now my rest of the term is even more thoroughly packed: I wonder how school work fits into this....
Had an extra long radio show today due to me covering for another DJ. Two hours was nice being able to stretch my legs, but it got a little tedious and even a little hectic still even though I had more time and didn't have to worry about rushing through it all. I think LSE just runs a tighter ship than WGTB hehe. It'll be nice getting a slot again next year. I wonder who I will partner with, if even that. Being your own guy has its perks: you run the show and you are boss to yourself :-) Maybe I will have rotating guests come on and join me in my musical odysseys. And I will force them to like my music haha

So yes this week, I have not been very productive, but I need to get stuff done ahead so my parents, aunt/uncle, and Michael will all be clear. Luckily, the workload this week was light, so I'll try to burrow through it all in the next few days. Also my bamboo plant is growing another shoot and the existing shoot is sprouting even more. I wonder how big it will get...

Weird News

It's 3:30Am and I had been thought/left for dead. Here is the situation synopsis:

1) Heath Ledger was found dead in his NYC apartment Tuesday afternoon at age 28. My world has been crippled. Think Buddy Holly plane crash in 2008. (Not really, but I wonder how long I had you going)

2) A bag of microwaveable popcorn I had caught fire when I put it in the microwave and cooked it. Damn.

Rumble in Brick Lane

So the four of us (JP, Jess, Stefan, and I) went on an uneventful trip to Brick Lane. We got to the street and for some bizarre reason, before we made it to our usual frequenting of Monsoon, we were accosted by hawkers from all sides, especially some from the restaurant across from Monsoon, Saffron. As the Saffron hawker was talking to me, I went like deer in the headlights and zoned out, while the Monsoon hawkers were poking fun at Saffron. I thought nothing of it, as I snapped out of my daze and we walked into Monsoon as usual.

We sat down to dinner at a window by the door and all of a sudden on the street we saw two hawkers raise their voices and then start throwing punches at each other. Out of nowhere, tons of Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis descended on the street and other hawkers tried to break up the fight or join in on other sides. One of the hawkers ran into Saffron and took off his jacket, while the other guy tried to follow him in and everyone was holding them back. It seemed as though things had come to blows between Monsoon and Saffron across the street from each other and a Cold War had begun. For the rest of the night, everyone was watching everyone stealthily from the windows of the respective restaurateurs.

As we were eating dinner and noticing the street still looked pretty fierce, we worried about our precarious and exposed position in the restaurant. I mentioned that someone could throw a brick through the window and hit me in the head. Jess admonished the peril of a body coming through the window. Always the optimist, I made the best of the situation by saying if flying debris hit me in the head, I would at least be able to wake up from my coma in time to greet my parents when they arrived in London. Stefan even improved it by saying I could write a book about all the weird dreams I had when I was in a coma and people would buy it to read that shit and it would be a bestseller. He said even if I didn't dream anything, I could still make shit up because people would still love it and eat it up.

Nice.

Tempus Fugit

I noticed this as soon as I got back to the room after Christmas break: my bamboo plant grew a shoot that sprouted. For months since I had bought it in October it had done nothing practically. And now it even had some roots in the water. I was afraid the window didn't provide enough light, but it seems like it did the trick. I don't know what possessed me while I was buying crockery and other things for my room back in October why I bought it, but it was standing there and it called to my soul--what can I say? I think everyone should be required to take care of one of these and if it dies under there care, they should not be allowed to have children. Maybe even sterilize them to make sure. Hehe just kidding on the last part, but why not have this as a test of ability for parenthood? It's the least we can do I say. Hmmm, it'll be sad in June when I have to go. What will I do at end? Try to smuggle it in my luggage back to the states? Nah last thing I need is to get arrested at customs for bringing back a cheap bamboo shoot I bought at Ikea. Hopefully someone from my flat will take it.

As I realized with my friends last week, everyone and his brother are coming to London. In addition, there are other events that will make this term go by even faster than last:
-The traitorous Jack Thorlin comes this Thursday
-I have been graciously invited to a Boy George concert this Friday
-My parents and aunt&uncle come February 5th
-Mikey Lavelle comes the 10th
-Kate Davey comes the 3rd week in February, around the 20th
-Sometime eventually after these, Jess and I go to Amsterdam
-LatAm paper due March 5th (my only big assignment this term)
-And before I know it, I'll be flying home on March 14th

Just to let you know, from March 14th, I'm back in the States until April 10th or so. So I guess I will see everyone around then?

A Week of Celebrities...and Photos!

I want to apologize for not putting up photos; formatting where the photos go in Blogger is a little time consuming and we wall know I am lazy...my apologies; perhaps this post will change things.

To start off, I saw Christian Slater in "Swimming with Sharks" an off-colour black comedy. I thought he did a could job, though some of the American accents of the other actors seemed dubious at best. If you have seen the movie True Romance, this play echoed slightly of the feel of his character, Clarence Worley, especially the scenes in True Romance where he is trying to sell the load of Mafia coke to this big shot director and he is talking about the director's magnum opus "Coming Home in a Body Bag". There you get to hear a great Slater monologue about movies, America, etc and so he also does in this play too,many times has great deliveries. But "Swimming" really had a lot of good one liners and Slater did a great job playing a scurrilous character. I also laughed at the really off color parts like when he was being tortured by his assistant. I think Jess can agree with me that that was pretty damn funny. Unfortunately if anyone wanted to go see it, the last performance was this past Friday. Don't feel bad, I almost missed out on it too but I was determined not to. But no the fun did not stop there. I thought I was done for the week until the weekend, but I was invited to see Othello with none other than Ewan McGregor playing Iago! One nice thing about this theatre was its size: it was so small. There were only 3 rows in the balcony and the orchestra only had, maybe 9 max? Also it was set in the round so all the seats surrounded the stage on 3 sides. So I was really close to Ewan and the rest of the cast. Also he looked into the crowd as he was delivering some soliloquys and other speeches, so I caught eye contact with him a few times. One time he looked long and then looked away, sort of rattled: I wonder if me stupidly grinning during a Shakespearean tragedy weirded him out. But how can you not if it is Ewan McGregor giving a stellar performance in front of you? The rest of the cast was very good too. All in all, great theatre performances. Back in NJ, my mom would always take us to musicals on Broadway and oh how I loved going to them. Still like musicals. However, one thing I feel Broadway was lacking to Theatreland (London's theatre district) was high quality plays. Here, I have not been disappointed at all with the acting and plays and lack of musicals (hehe maybe perhaps the musicals are better back in the states as the one I saw here, Spamalot, was good but did not measure up fully with Broadway.)

So finally, I got all my work together and done. Boy did I feel relieved. Now I get to start it again for another week! Haha! But before that begins, I got to see Van Morrison on Friday at the Hammersmith Apollo. Jess gave me the heads up on this and we were psyched, we listened to a Van Morrison greatest hits compilation to get us up to speed, we listened to his two great albums Astral Weeks and Moondance. Worst comes to worse, the generic Van song has a droning background musical part and he sings "a-runnin-and-a-lovin, a-runnin-and-a-lovin, a-runnin-and-a-lovin, yeah-yeah-yeaaaaah..." (sung/spoken really quickly) That is every Van song, when in doubt. So we get there right before he is come onto stage. He has a backing band of 8 players and 3 backup singers. Wow impressive. And then all of a sudden the show starts and Van walks on in a fedora and glasses (I couldn't tell if they were sunglasses or not). So I don't recognize the first song. OK no big deal, probably playing stuff off a recent album. Then song 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....Jess and I would look at each other to see if either of us had any glimmer of recognition: nada. Also all the music we didn't know, although the band was in top form, it sounded like lounge music. While being puzzled at attempting to decipher songs, I had forgotten about Van's infamous concert histrionics. In the middle of a song, as he was singing the "a-runnin-and-a..." drone I explained above, without warning he just dropped his mic and it fell and hit the stage with a loud THUMP! and he slowly began to wander off stage and behind the curtain. The band looked a little puzzled but continued to play and finish. Van after the song ended came back on stage and the bassist leaned over and tried to talk to him but he started another song. Again, he placed down the mic towards the end and silently and mysteriously walked off stage. Finally they ended the show with what we realized was the finale when again Van abruptly left the stage, never came back, an announcer shouted "THAT WAS VAN MORRISON!" and the band began to pack up. Bizarre indeed. Hopefully some reviews will comment on this. In the end, I only recognized 2 and 2 halves songs: Moondance, Gloria, some cover of an old crooner standard from the 40s or 50s, and a cover of St James Infirmary. We were both a little disappointed at the concert afterwards. I think my favorite members of the band, based on their performance and solos were either the woman play steel guitar/slide guitar/banjo or the keyboardist. Both of them were awesome. The lead guitarist's style I just really did not like: something was grating about it.

Should I save in other news for later? Nah, two quick observations: Closet-gay-yet-he-himself-doesn't-know-it-yet Matthew (long story, maybe it will be the topic of another post) from Development Economics might be onto something in one of his descriptions of the denizens surrounding High Holborn Hall: there really does seem to be a crazy guy that shouts randomly at 3 in the morning outside our dorm. I didn't believe Matthew until I started hearing him too. It is really bizarre. Now here is the annoyance: I am sometimes really surprised about niceness among people in London. There is a record store I go to in London, and I buy from there and I am not regular, but I come in enough that I think they might recognize me. So I put on hold two used CDs that I need to check online and the counter assistant gets all indignant and huffy and puffy like I just told him off. Jeeze! If I pain you so much, I won't come back then, asshole. I'm a customer, I buy stuff from you, I actually come regularly, and you need to hact like I am hurting you in someway all the time? Get a fucking life...and a new customer. (though I probably will return again hehe) Now this makes it even stranger: so I walk back to the dorm from the store and I need to cross a busy street, Charing Cross. Bus drivers in London have a reputation for being rude and mean, and not caring about pedestrians (they speed up when you cross in front of them!) So I need to cross the bus lane and there is a bus, and I wait for it to go. However, there was a backup and stop in the bus land and can you believe this: he stopped further back and waved me through. I couldn't believe it, just stunned me. This bus driver, who will never see me again was so much more nicer to me than the store owner, who actually probably recognized me and knew I was a regular paying customer. Sometimes people don't cease to amaze me!

Argy-Bargy & Christian Slater!

For a long time, I thought Argy-Bargy meant Argentine or Argentina or something pertaining to it in British slang. Perhaps I was inspired by my LatAm professor here? But instead I found out it is British slang for argument. My mistake. However, it is relevant because I have read LatAm until blue in the face. And I still have more to do. However, it's really interesting yet bizarre, the economic history of Latin America. For example, did you know in the Argentine (as my teacher calls Argentina for some odd reason), there was a higher quality of life than many areas of Europe during the Fin de Siecle? And it was a leading country until the 30s and has had the highest amount of foreign capital ever invested in a country? But the million dollar question is, why is it not a developed country? Why is Latin America not OECD yet? Hopefully, we'll see in the course...

But yes, my apologies, talk about work and class does not an interesting blog make, however it is relevant. Last week, I let shit get out of hand probably because I had been spoiled by a 3 week vacation and the lack of work thereof. I slept for the majority of the time I was in Britain, didn't do enough work and procrastinated. I let it all backlog: bad idea. Now I'm back on track and in control of life. My apologies to any that were negatively affected by this.

So now to what I have been doing. We finally tracked down a place that plays Georgetown basketball games: a BBQ joint on Poland Street in Soho called Bodean's. I actually had walked by this place before and is right by 2 of my favorite record stores in London, including Sister Ray. There were sooooooo many Hoyas: maybe 30+ and around 18 or were undegrads studying abroad? I think the remaining few restaurant patrons were confused as to what was happening. I tried to start the fight song in middle of the game, but I didn't have the balls to shout "Hey Hoyas, how long's it been?" Next time though, I will. My friend shouted it at the end of the match, after we had narrowly won and the whole restaurant (and by that I mean all the Hoyas) went into a rage singing it. I got a kick out of the fact some Brit was recording the whole proceedings on his cell phone video camera.

In other news, my radio show is back on again! This time I think my production is even more slick! http://pulse.dj Be there or be square! Also tonight, I go with Jess to see Swimming with Sharks, starring none other than CHRISTIAN SLATER! I realized just in time that the pay ends its run the 19th so I got tickets luckily.

Also, in closing, I have to say I saw one of the lamest op-eds ever in The Hoya. I won't say who authored it, but the writing was bad, it was all truisms and platitudes, was too stereotypical, and didn't give any insider insight into London. Hell, I could have read that shit on any nickel-and-diming blog on the web. My British "efficiency" rant I think would be a great basis/start for a rebuttal op-ed by me. Hehe, maybe I will make a response op-ed: don't know if I will get it published. After British efficiency, I can move onto other topics I have brought up in my blog and in other places/emails on numerous occasions: crazy driving, chavs, street "navigation", accents & the subtle class system, how a British bar argument ensues and is resolved, the police state, lack of good genetic material, British uni/school culture, and many other fun topics as I re-read them or re-remember them. If I do actually write this, I'll let you know. Oh yeah and on the Lancastershire hotpot, a great stew thing made with lamb and potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. It's good and I can avoid getting Mad Cow disease by eating it. I need to work on eating more veggies and fruit. So after a long hiatus, you get a long blog post from me. Enjoy! More to come!

Old Britannia

So finally I get back and what do I find? My dorm somehow "doesn't have water" even though my sink works and they are fixing the hot water. I don't get it, hopefully something awful isn't just about to happen? No that would have been my flight back. So I took a redeye from JFK to Heathrow and when we get to Heathrow at 7:15AM, we are circling around Heathrow but there is a lot of air traffic really bizarre for 7 in the morning and we are supposed to have made really good time and come in early, but instead we had to go into a holding pattern. We circle back around to Heathrow and we get a great view of the dawn and London (I didn't notice until I saw the Eye and Hyde Park. It was pretty cool going over all of it) So we neared Heathrow and we descended, I saw the other parked planes, I saw some airport buildings but something wasn't quite right...

We seemed to be right on target but as I looked out the window, it seemed like we were going way too fast and were not low enough or at the right angle. As I pondered whether we were going to nosedive into the tarmac or land too far along the runway to come to a complete stop by the time it ended, I heard and felt the engines jump back to full thrust and the plane quickly bank up and to the left and away and we quickly accelerate off. We were all puzzled as to what happened. we were pretty close to landing when we pulled out or should I say close to the runway because I don't see how we could have landed that. So we wait and then we realize we must have almost hit another plane.

The copilot comes on the intercom and says not to worry, that it was "normal operating procedure." I laughed with the guy sitting next to me because, yeah of course if you are going to hit another plane it is "normal operating procedure" to take evasive maneuvers! So then the pilot comes on and explains that the airport was really busy (I knew that) and that a plane hadn't finished clearing the runway and so we had to abort the landing because of safety requirements on distance between planes. I don't know how close we came to rear-ending a plane, if it was even that or if we were going to collide head on. One can only hope that wasn't a close call and that I didn't use up a spare life that morning.

But now back to London. I was really tired, somehow the jet lag really hit me a lot this time so I spent much time in bed. Oooooo was it nice... We found a bar called The Maple Leaf for Canucks so that was fun. I also rediscovered, even though I am not a picky eater, that English food again was fitting the stereotype and I had been spoiled by home cooking for three weeks. Oh well, I have the whole term to get readjusted! I did my first radio show of the term today. Went really well I thought except for a few slip ups that I will keep to myself and not tell anyone else. Now I have a permanent slot so I have plenty of time to stretch out my legs, though it seems like I always feel rushed trying to fit the music for my show haha. If only I had another half hour or hour...

It is nice to be back. It was good being home too. It's the little things you appreciate. Like The London Paper. The worst paper ever, but it is free, so I read it. It borders on the tabloidish, has a relationship column and a paparazzi center spread for celebrity faux-pas's and of course it "reports the news" Example: the Tory candidate for Mayor of London is Boris Johnson who has gathered the reputation, internationally as well it seems, for always putting his foot in his mouth and just acting really clumsily. If you see a picture of him with his frazzled, disheveled genius hair, you can't but sympathize with the criticism. He went around a tough area of London in light of recent stabbings and some youths recognized him as "that guy off the TV who does stupid stuff" Man I love this trashy newpaper. I'm going to miss it when I am back in the States. At least they have a website.

Holidaze / Hopping The Pond Again

Bah! I guess leisure got the better of my life and free time. Don't worry: once I return to school and work I will have more time to post here! Haha, how perverted is that? Life does funny things to you like that. Example: you are most productive when you are under stress and have a million things to finish by a certain deadline. Then when you have tons of free time? Complete and utter sloth and lack of productivity. Hell, I can rattle off so much stuff I wanted or had to do this break and didn't do or am rushing to get done now. Oops, my mistake! But really the Holiday went by so quickly and even though it was fun, seems like a daze in my mind.

On a good note, my computer is mysteriously working again, inexplicably so. The best that Best Buy could say was it must have been a short caused by loose wiring. Whatever. Funny anecdote along with that: I was going around with my Mom today doing various and sundry things, like picking up my fixed computer, getting my hair cut (it will be a shock, I assure you. Sorry all you fans of the long hair. No fears--by end of Lent Term it will be back up to length again!), and going to Borders to take advantage of their 30% discount. Now this is the funny part. At Borders, you can only use the discount one per customer. So my mom and I would determine what books and stuff we wanted and go back and forth by ourselves to the counter to different cashiers each time and use the discount to buy one thing each. After a few runs and feeling completely like cheapskates we laughed as we carried our loot off to the car: Borders didn't know what hit them.

Ahh, yes it was nice to be home for 3 weeks. Almost too short in a way. I think life is accelerating and there is nothing I/we can do to stop it. As Steve Miller said "Time keeps on slipping into the future" Again restlessness creeps up on me and something seems not quite right. And once you see it, you can't go back to how it once was: the cat is out of the bag. I guess you could say I have a crisis of free will: do I really have control over my life and what I am doing? Or am I playing out a script written a long long time ago and my actions have all be set up for me? Do we just follow in the footsteps of our family before us and are doomed to repeat what they do and take on their characteristics and become what we despise? (cf "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin and The Breakfast Club) And if the game has been rigged (or even worse, completely decided for us already) who the Hell has written it and why?

Haha, I sound like a stereotypical worrying Socrates! Depressing thoughts no? Maybe there is hope for us to say a big "Fuck you" to those forces trying to corral us and break free and do what we want and will.

On that note I hop the Pond in less than a day. Scriptwriter, if you are listening, don't mess things up too much or end my plotline just yet. Thanks

Darkness On The Edge of Town

New Year's Day -- We'll see what 2008 brings...

It's unsettling when you look at a picture and you can find nothing wrong with it but then the longer you stare, the more its tears, runs, and discolorations become visible. Once you see these imperfections, they nag at your eye and you can never look at the picture the same way again. Even if you try to take the whole thing in, the little stray defects keep appearing and distract you from the rest of the picture and all the important details. Eventually you don't want to look at the picture anymore because you can't look and appreciate it and it gets relegated to the dust heap.

I return to London on Saturday. Break went by quickly, no?