Haussmanian tune-up

Paris is beautiful. More so than any other place my eyes have seen. The buildings, done in a Haussmanian style, intricately connect with no space in between. The grassed over backyards are long gone once the airplane takes off over the Atlantic. Gone are the swing sets, swimming pools, rose bushes, and cans of rotting waste. Instead are rows of apartments, with not a patch of nature in sight. Nature is secured. If access you desire, find a park. You won't find any greenery here. In fact, you won't find much warmth here, metaphorical or physical.

Thinking time is ample. Beautiful streets, outdoor cafes warmed by heatlamps, and seats by the seine for miles--no, kilometers, afford the thinker the much needed time necessary to finally feel alone. Distanced from how I am accustomed to passing my time, I obviously do things differently here. I talk to new people, I eat different food, and instead of listening to raging music over my Bose speakers I've more recently allowed blues to undress me through a pair of headphones.

Hungry Flytraps and Like-Minded Folks

In 2009, summer begins on June 21st. Fortunately, I am just in time to begin my first summer read. Over the last nine months my thirst for non-academia related texts has reached a pinnacle. I have been overwhelmed with my assigned reading and my pleasure reading is long overdue. In order to get back into the swing, I have decided to do a rereading of an old favorite. That book is Garth Nix's novel Sabriel. This book has been in my collection for years and I unabashedly admit that it may be one of my favorite series. If anything else, it will serve as a warm up for my summer reads.

With summer in mind, I'm trying to decide how to live my summer. I originally planned to hunker down for battle by working full-time and studying for a standardized test. I'm beginning to recognize that while these tasks will take a significant amount of my time, they are not how I hope to recall my 21st summer. For that reason I am living by the motto: Life's too short to not do what you want. I am going to take advantage of opportunities that arise, get excited and get out. And I sincerely hope that you do the same.

Here's to summer.

The Genius of Lil' Wayne

As much as I would love to say that someone like Lil' Wayne is merely a producer of the auditory junk food plaguing music's good name, I admittedly cannot deny that he is a talented individual. Or at least whoever writes his songs is at the top of their game. Yes (ft. Pharrell) by Lil' Wayne, which you can listen to here is upon careful listening full of extremely witty puns. The task of exegisizing rap may not be as respected as considering Melville or Marx, but it's integral in proving my point.

Let's examine the following lyrics:


"Yes I make money I'm a paper machine
And you can catch me in the newest not the latest machine
Now weezy why you drive so fast? because I’m chasin’ the dream
And when I catch that motherfucker ima rape it and leave"


Aside from rhyming "machine" with "machine"-which in any traditional sense is a huge literary offense-there's a lot to unpack from this rhyme. The first pun comes from his admission that Lil' Wayne drives the newest, not the latest machine. In the traditional sense of referring to one's wealth, it's important to have the latest Mercedes Benz, iPhone, etc. However, if something is "the latest" that is to imply that it's already old and something new is already just around the bend.

In reference to the speed at which Lil' Wayne drives his expensive automobiles, he states that he drives so fast because he's chasing the dream. Which dream is Lil' Wayne chasing? My assumption would be that he is chasing the American Dream, the same dream presented by countless demagogues and even in great 20th century American literature, namely The Great Gatsby. To liken the speed of his chase of the American dream to the speed at which he drives his expensive (most likely European) vehicle is incredibly witty! Lil' Wayne is condoning speeding and breaking countless state speed limits, but to put an American ideology into actual use--to convince his listeners that if you only try and move faster that they'll be able to achieve that dream--well, it's amazing.

One more quote to consider:

"Type of nigga go and get his hood cross his abdominal
you could check my watch I been rich a long time ago"

I have kept the rhyme intact, but it's only the second half that I will be considering. In short, this line acts similarly to the previously lyrics I have analyzed. The idea that a watch, a unit through which one can measure the twenty-four hours of a calendar day (sometimes coupled with a back-light and date feature) can be employed to track when someone gains their wealth is an interesting notion. However, in this instance Lil' Wayne probably has an outrageously priced Rolex (notes the above photo), which he can use to check the time. If we follow through with this assumption, the time he acquired the Rolex likely corroborates with when he began to make his stacks, which in turn you tell us how long Lil' Wayne has been rich.

Wow...

Things I hate

In this day and age with so many things begging for our opinion, it is impossible to love everything. In fact, if you say you love everything you will inevitably be lying. It's impossible to love everything.

Today I will focus on the foods that I hate. Oddly enough, all of them are white and of a similar consistency.

Things I Hate

1. Mayonnaise
2. Cottage Cheese
   
3. Sour Cream
4. Whipped Cream

Why I Hate
All of these foods (if you can honestly refer to them as such) are disgusting. They have a negligible amount of flavor, and what they lack in flavor they more than make up for in repulsive texture. Think about what's inside of that bloated pimple or that slug brimming with its gooey slime. Now multiply your level of disgust times five and you'll be able to comprehend the degree to which these vile substances make my stomach churn.

If it's white, it's not going in my mouth. And yes, that is what she said.

Hounds of Love

Kate Bush is an incredible artist who was fortunate enough to receive and early start at a musical career and to have survived long enough to produce a unique musical catalog. When first listening to the female singer, I found myself being tortured, for lack of a better adjective, by her eerie and childish vocals. However, being one to willingly abuse her ears, I gave her many more tries, and it was in fact her song "Cloudbusting" that won me over. One of the things that I enjoy most about the artist is that she is not solely singing about love, sex or rock (which is unfortunately a trap that far too much music fall into). Instead, she sings about a varying array of subjects: everything from Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" to her dear old "Babushka."

Today, it is "Hounds of Love" that has characterized my week, which you can listen to at last.fm, a useful online tool to track your daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly listenings. This is my favorite part

Take my shoes off
And throw them in the lake,
And I'll be
Two steps on the water

I think this is a great visual, and it also makes me wonder if this is perhaps how Jesus himself walked on the water a couple millenia ago. Something to ponder I suppose.

My Secret Christmas List

Over the last couple of weeks I've been gathering a list of things I would like for Christmas. I never did let anybody see this list, which raises the question "Well, what's the point of a Christmas list if I don't tell anyone what it is that I want?" A noble question.

Since I've been home for the break, I was informed that I was not receiving any Christmas presents. I was a bit aghast because I had purchased my parents extremely thoughtful presents. I instantly regretted not giving my mother my secret Christmas list. However, after expressing my disappoinment with a crestfallen look across my face, my mother explained to me it wasn't due to the stock market or because I had been naughty, but instead because she preferred to take me on a sort of "back to school" shopping trip so I could find exactly what I wanted and make a day out of it with some mother-daughter bonding. Personally, I would much rather spend a day shopping with my mother instead of giving her a finite shopping list dictating "what I want," which in some respects would make me feel like I had turned her into my personal shopper.

Not being a full-blooded Christian since my mother is Jewish (which according to the Torah would make me Jewish being as the lineage follows the mother's blood line), I've never had a huge connection to the holiday. While we do celebrate it every year with my dad's side of the family, it was never a big deal in my nuclear family. As a child when we lived closer to my mother's side of the family, we did celebrate Hanukkah with my mother's parents and then Christmas with my dad's parents. Being a bit of an elitist even as a child, I always enjoyed celebrating Hanukkah a little bit more because I knew fewer people who celebrated the holiday. Additionally, growing up I was closer to my mother's side of the family because we saw them much more often, allowing for stronger bonds to develop so logically time spent with them was always more enjoyable.

It is my personal belief that this time of year is to be spent reflecting on what we are grateful for. It is meant to be spent with family and friends and to rekindle yearly traditions before the close of the year (these traditions include: obscene amounts of baked goods, poinsettias, decorating, walking at night to see the Christmas lights, feeling homey with your homies). It is meant for us to feel that inner warmth, which will serve to carry us through the darkest and coldest part of the year. No matter what one celebrates, this is a universal feeling; a feeling that makes the air around us electric and full of the goodness of life.


My Secret Christmas List

Some of the things I want but don't need:

• Blackberry Storm

Some of the things I want:

• new alarm clock
• Hardshell case for my macbook
• flannel check shirt

Some of the things I need:

• Broken Social Scene tickets
  
• American Apparel Deep V-Neck T's

Crocheting a Hat

Yesterday I picked up my first crochet hook and tonight I finished a hat. I was pretty shocked, however in my attempts to avoid severe ennui I became crafty. After watching an extremely helpful tutorial, I was able to start my hat in no time at all.


If this snow does not melt soon, I may crochet myself a matching noose.