by Emily - 2:22 PM
It seems I've taken a breather with blogging lately; it'll only continue because Jeremy and I are leaving for Redwoods Nat'l Park tonight for four days (returning Sunday). I'm really looking forward to the air, the trees, the smell, the dirt, and even the road trip there and back with the windows down and the iPod playing. When I get back, I start summer term classes on Monday and will be back in a regular routine and posting much more frequently.
Oh, speaking of classes, my 4.0 GPA is no more. I got an A- in Communication and Gender and I have no idea why. All signs pointed to my acing the class. So I sent an e-mail to the instructor yesterday morning and haven't heard back yet. I know, I know, cry the nerd a river, but damn it sucks to break a streak.
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by Emily - 10:11 PM
My two week June break continues...
I showed Jeremy one of my favorite films a few nights ago, Persona, directed/written by Ingmar Bergman. The film is a mesmerizing meditation on two people merging into each other's experience. Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann give powerful, open-faced performances and the black and white cinematography (by the inimitable Sven Nykvist) is starkly beautiful. There's a terrific essay on the film by Susan Sontag written in 1967: "...the film... bears an almost defiling charge of personal agony."
Goddamn Friday Reagan day of mourning. Also, every time I turned on NPR last week, it was some kind of Reagan strokefest. And if that's NPR, I can imagine the coverage on Fox News. Before you know it, this will be November's ticket (via Cedric).
Friday night we checked out Sherman Alexie at Powell's. I have yet to read anything by him but I heard he's an excellent writer and fun in person. He didn't disappoint - what a riot! Has anyone else seen him read?
To celebrate Jeremy's birthday yesterday, we ate Hawaiian and saw a packed house 10:30 PM showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"). Today we slept in, worked on cleaning out the garage, and picked lots of lettuce from the garden.
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by Emily - 4:38 PM
Happy birthday to my beloved Jeremy! He turns 32 today and has been out most of the day at an Oregon Tilth gardening class. Pop over to his site and give him some love!
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by Emily - 5:13 PM
In the past five years, I've barely seen any music videos (we don't get cable, and even if we did I wouldn't be watching MTV). Once in a great while I catch a music video online through a band's web site. This morning I noticed iTunes music store has high-quality full-length music videos and I watched about five or so that really sucked. Then...THEN, I saw The Strokes' "Reptilia" video. Lordy, lordy, that's the sexiest music video I've seen in a long time! The song itself is efficient and satisfying, but frontman Julian Casablancas' expressions and the editing really make the video. Very well done.
Can you tell I'm on break? I spent two hours this morning reading all of Animal Farm, which in a way feels as applicable now as it was to Russia during Orwell's time. And yeah, I've been goofing off listening to tons of music. Lots of sample listening to be had at the iTunes music store, CD Baby, 3hive, and Epitonic.
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by Emily - 8:45 PM
Ding dong, the term is done! While it wasn't wicked, I am certainly wiped out.
Spring was fabulous and I made a few terrific "keeper" friends and academic acquaintances. I was mentioning to someone the other day how glad I am that I took so many years off before I went to college, because now I have a much better sense of what I'm interested in and what classes I will enjoy. In the past two years, I have really liked every single one of my classes (even Statistics was ok).
keep reading »
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by Emily - 8:30 PM
...when I should be wrapping up finals:
- I'm not sure about the legitimacy of the source, but this article making the rounds is pretty intense: Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides:
In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be “God’s will” and then tells aides to “fuck over” anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration.
- Tomorrow through Tuesday is the G-8 conference taking place in a small town off the coast of Georgia. For those of you who don't know what the G-8 is, it's the heads of state of the eight most economically powerful nations in the world - the U.S., France, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada. These eight men determine and implement polices that affect billions of lives. They set the agendas of global institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
26,000 police will be on hand in a town of 10,000; $54 million is being spent on security, including the gallons of pepper spray I'm sure those police will be inflicting on protestors. Atlanta IndyMedia will have the full scoop over the next few days. (via Easy Bake Coven)
- Rowan alerts us to what's going on in Afghanistan: children are being kidnapped, killed, and their organs sold on the black market. Horrifying. Her commentary is dead-on.
- Another piece that refuses to join ABC, FOX, CNN, NPR, et al in whitewashing the Reagan legacy: KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN. GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER by Greg Palast. Juan Cole, a history professor at U Michigan, has this to say as well.
- I was really touched by this article in the NY Times: Birth Parents Retaining a Voice in City Foster Model. (login: strangechord; password: readnyt) As some of you know, I grew up in and out of about eight different foster homes and sometimes went over a year without seeing my mom, with whom I'm very close. This new model, which started in NYC and has been implemented in over 30 other cities since, promotes more communication and familiarity between the foster parent(s) and the birth parent(s), making both the separation and reunification process less tough for the child. My mom and I sure could've used this:
Now after six years, with some 28,000 families having participated in the program, the city's departing commissioner of children's services points to the growth of the program as among the achievements he is most proud of. "For many parents, it has demystified foster care," said the commissioner, William C. Bell, who will step down in a few weeks. "In surveys, parents report a much more positive experience with the system and their caseworkers. Children are returned home on average three months earlier."
- On a lighter note, here's 10 ways to infuse your work with your personality and 101 ways to improve your news site. (via onfocus)
- Not so much a read, but a definite bookmark and listen if you're not in an Air America-accessible area: The Randi Rhodes Show "Illegal" Archives. I am absolutely a nut for her show; Jeremy and I listen to it almost every day in rush hour. The amount of political and historical knowledge, common sense and decency the woman has is stupendous. Today's show in particular is well worth a listen.
Finally, I'm rolling off the Recently Discovered links in the lefthand sidebar into the archive more quickly now to make room at the bottom of the column for my favorite news links. Check out the list at the bottom of my blogroll. And...is anyone going to comment on the new setlist?!
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by Emily - 1:24 AM
In showing respect for the dead, I will follow that old credo, If you haven't anything nice to say.... However, I will let someone else do the talking (who I don't think is being un-nice so much as truthful).
UPDATE: Truthout has another good non-fawning synopsis of Reagan's legacy.
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Instrumental Acheby Emily - 12:09 AM
This last weekend of classes, I have Communication & Gender and Social Movements finals to complete. I figured I'd take a break tonight and put together a new Strangechord setlist. Here it is: Instrumental Ache. 24 of my favorite non-vocal songs in many different genres, including ambient, electronic, film score, rock, and new age. These are pieces that slay me in the best possible way. Every one's a thing of beauty. Please comment and tell me which songs grab you.
Remember, there's now a link to a stream of the setlist, so you can enjoy "flipping through" the songs if you like without committing to a download.
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by Emily - 9:55 PM
Brian, a 16-year-old friend of Jesse's, put it this way: "Being in a real relationship just complicates everything. You feel obligated to be all, like, couply. And that gets really boring after a while. When you're friends with benefits, you go over, hook up, then play video games or something. It rocks."
Friends with benefits, hooking up ... damn, has high school changed in the last ten years. I recommend reading the whole thing (login: strangechord; password: readnyt).
While I am not against the idea of teenagers having sex per se (so long as it's protected sex), the sort of cold efficiency and callousness with which the teens in the article are "benefitting" each other makes me sad. And I thought my generation was full of men and women using their bodies purely for ego plays... this up and coming generation looks to be much worse in that regard. It never ceases to amaze me the parallel between the increasingly routinized, assembly-line nature of modern corporate culture and people's increasingly "mechanical" handling of personal interactions and their emotions.
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