01.31.2003 | What The Fuck Is Going On Here?
>> [EDITOR'S NOTE, APRIL 29, 2004: Apparently, the text of this entry was lost during a rebuild; there's a bug in Safari that will occasionally cause the text of a recently-edited comment to find its way into the main blog entry's text field. That happened here, and this entry was overwritten with a bizarre suicide-themed spam comment that I deleted. Of course I did not have a back-up. If I recall correctly, this entry contained nothing of any real merit, with the exception of some complaints about the weather and the revelation that I had just been mugged, though all the details of that unfortunate occurence would come in the next post. Nevertheless, history now has a jagged scar that cannot be healed. Sigh.]
01.27.2003 | I Love My Life And All That Jazz
>> Just to make certain -- it is astonishingly pretentious to set out to make a series of mix-CDs that document each month in a year of your life, right? It is? Good. Here's January.
Oh yes: and I installed Jaguar on my laptop. Twice. Since the first time it crapped out and made me think my computer was dead. That was fun. Of course, since I can't get on the internet with my laptop, OSX.2 is largely useless to me (I could really, really use iCal. Sigh). That's life, baby, ba da ba ba ba.
- Pet Shop Boys - "Being Boring"
- The Streets - "Weak Become Heroes (Royksopp's Memory Lane Mix)"
- Daniel Bedingfield - "James Dean (I Wanna Know)"
- Duran Duran - "View To A Kill"
- Electric Six with Jack White - "Danger! High Voltage"
- The Space Cowboy - "I Would Die 4 U"
- Kylie Minogue - "Light Years"
- The Jam - "English Rose"
- The Clash - (White Man In) Hammersmith Palais"
- Robbie Williams - "Win Some Lose Some"
- Pulp - "Sorted For E's And Wizz"
- Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"
- Elvis Presley - "Suspicious Minds"
- Catherine Zeta-Jones et al. (CHICAGO soundtrack) - "Overture / And All That Jazz"
- Underworld - "Dirty Epic"
- Peter Gabriel - "Blood Of Eden"
Oh yes: and I installed Jaguar on my laptop. Twice. Since the first time it crapped out and made me think my computer was dead. That was fun. Of course, since I can't get on the internet with my laptop, OSX.2 is largely useless to me (I could really, really use iCal. Sigh). That's life, baby, ba da ba ba ba.
01.25.2003 | Pictures Without Explanations 2
>> Perhaps it's asking a lot to expect America to act differently from all the other empires in history, but wasn't that the original idea?
I don't want to keep beating the political drum, but the coincidence of Time magazine publishing this article by Brian Eno almost simultaneous with my last post was just too much. And if you feel inclined to make snarky comments about why we should heed the philosophy of a baldy keyboard player... well, you read the website of a bratty, spoiled 20-year-old, so let's not engage in the fallacy of expertise, shall we?
And now, another round of Pictures Without Explanations. I find that these appear much darker on Windows monitors as opposed to Macs, so apologies for that -- these are sexy-lookin' photos on my computer.
I don't want to keep beating the political drum, but the coincidence of Time magazine publishing this article by Brian Eno almost simultaneous with my last post was just too much. And if you feel inclined to make snarky comments about why we should heed the philosophy of a baldy keyboard player... well, you read the website of a bratty, spoiled 20-year-old, so let's not engage in the fallacy of expertise, shall we?
And now, another round of Pictures Without Explanations. I find that these appear much darker on Windows monitors as opposed to Macs, so apologies for that -- these are sexy-lookin' photos on my computer.
01.24.2003 | America! I'm One Of Your Kids
>> If there's one thing I could tell my American readers right now, it would be this: all that bullshit you hear on the news about America's ignorance of its international image and its complete incomprehension of the political climate abroad -- all that bullshit is absolutely true.
I thought I understood the way the rest of the world felt about us. Intellectually, I did, anyway. I've always been disgusted by America's climate of supremacy; the assumption that, just because we exported McDonald's around the world, we exported everything else about our culture as well. That's not the case. The rest of the world is a very, very different place, with a very, very different idea of how they'd like the world to function. America is culturally alone in the world in a lot of very, very important ways that, quite simply, we are ignoring. And that's just not going to work out.
I truly am embarassed to be an American abroad right now. It's gotten to the point where, when I shop at the supermarket here in London, I'm afraid to say "Hello" and "Thank you" to the checkout girl, because then she'll know where I'm from -- and the look that crosses people's faces when they hear an American accent is not a pretty sight. Britain is a very, very angry country right now. Anti-war sentiment here is much stronger than it is back home in the States, and all their simmering anger is directed at two targets -- Blair (who seems to be absolutely committed to war, with or without the public's mandate, and it sounds like he's gonna have to do without) and the United States, who are very obviously doing their level best to drag the rest of the world into this mess.
I don't want to go to war on principle. I do recognize the threat and the cruelty of Saddam Hussein, and I do understand, intellectually if not emotionally, that something's got to be done to remove him from power. What I don't understand is why we have to do things the way we're doing them. Why can't we listen to the international community? I know that sentence is turning into the "Can't we all just get along?" cliché of the post-9/11 climate, but it really does mean something. We are a part of the global community, after all, as much as Americans often like to think of themselves as something separate and apart from such concerns. If we want a war, why aren't we doing our best to make sure that it's a war with minimal consequences? Why aren't we doing what we need to do to placate our fellow nations? If we're dissatisfied with the U.N.'s methods and processes, why are we just ignoring them when we could be making them more effective? If we know Iraq has weapons, and we know where they are, why aren't we telling anyone?!? Why aren't we producing the kind of evidence that would engender collaboration, as opposed to animosity? Why aren't we trying to be a benign force of good instead of the fucking conquering hero?
I'd like to think that the answer to all of these questions is not "Because we don't wanna." But our leadership, and our population at large, needs to realize that that is exactly what it looks like to the rest of the world. When America doesn't engage in dialogue with other countries, when it waves it armed forces around like a shiny new toy, when its president calls other countries by snotty names and the American people are silent about what they object to, what they support, and what they really want, then we really do look like spoiled, violent children who think that pushing the rest of the world around has no consequences. And that, I guarantee you, will end badly. Because at the end of the day, there's only three hundred million of us. And four billion of them.
I'm not saying anything new here, and I'm not saying anything in a particularly eloquent or cogent manner, but I do think I'm saying the obvious things. The world shouldn't be this way -- it shouldn't be so angry -- and we shouldn't pretend that it's not our problem.
I thought I understood the way the rest of the world felt about us. Intellectually, I did, anyway. I've always been disgusted by America's climate of supremacy; the assumption that, just because we exported McDonald's around the world, we exported everything else about our culture as well. That's not the case. The rest of the world is a very, very different place, with a very, very different idea of how they'd like the world to function. America is culturally alone in the world in a lot of very, very important ways that, quite simply, we are ignoring. And that's just not going to work out.
I truly am embarassed to be an American abroad right now. It's gotten to the point where, when I shop at the supermarket here in London, I'm afraid to say "Hello" and "Thank you" to the checkout girl, because then she'll know where I'm from -- and the look that crosses people's faces when they hear an American accent is not a pretty sight. Britain is a very, very angry country right now. Anti-war sentiment here is much stronger than it is back home in the States, and all their simmering anger is directed at two targets -- Blair (who seems to be absolutely committed to war, with or without the public's mandate, and it sounds like he's gonna have to do without) and the United States, who are very obviously doing their level best to drag the rest of the world into this mess.
I don't want to go to war on principle. I do recognize the threat and the cruelty of Saddam Hussein, and I do understand, intellectually if not emotionally, that something's got to be done to remove him from power. What I don't understand is why we have to do things the way we're doing them. Why can't we listen to the international community? I know that sentence is turning into the "Can't we all just get along?" cliché of the post-9/11 climate, but it really does mean something. We are a part of the global community, after all, as much as Americans often like to think of themselves as something separate and apart from such concerns. If we want a war, why aren't we doing our best to make sure that it's a war with minimal consequences? Why aren't we doing what we need to do to placate our fellow nations? If we're dissatisfied with the U.N.'s methods and processes, why are we just ignoring them when we could be making them more effective? If we know Iraq has weapons, and we know where they are, why aren't we telling anyone?!? Why aren't we producing the kind of evidence that would engender collaboration, as opposed to animosity? Why aren't we trying to be a benign force of good instead of the fucking conquering hero?
I'd like to think that the answer to all of these questions is not "Because we don't wanna." But our leadership, and our population at large, needs to realize that that is exactly what it looks like to the rest of the world. When America doesn't engage in dialogue with other countries, when it waves it armed forces around like a shiny new toy, when its president calls other countries by snotty names and the American people are silent about what they object to, what they support, and what they really want, then we really do look like spoiled, violent children who think that pushing the rest of the world around has no consequences. And that, I guarantee you, will end badly. Because at the end of the day, there's only three hundred million of us. And four billion of them.
I'm not saying anything new here, and I'm not saying anything in a particularly eloquent or cogent manner, but I do think I'm saying the obvious things. The world shouldn't be this way -- it shouldn't be so angry -- and we shouldn't pretend that it's not our problem.
01.21.2003 | Standing In The (Rain) Shower... Thinking
>> As my first week in London wraps up, I offer some observations on my life here:
...Nobody in this town knows how to walk down a sidewalk. The basic passerby-avoidance skills that every New Yorker acquires within fifteen minutes of their arrival (otherwise, they would die) are simply incomprehensible to Londoners, who either simply ramble down the sidewalks in gently arcing paths, making sure to cover every inch of terrain, or else are simply entirely unaware of other human beings as they barrel forward in a straight line (though not in that DO NOT FUCK WITH ME way in which New Yorkers do their barreling). It's very frustrating.
...CD prices vary so widely that there is simply no point in trying to think of what it's costing you in dollars; you might as well just surrender and buy them anyway. As you can imagine, this has been a terrible development for me, and I have already turned to prostitution to cover my habit.
...The Underground is faster, cleaner, and easier to navigate than the New York subway. It is also much more expensive, and shuts down for no good reason at midnight. On the whole, though, I get the feeling that Londoners should stop whining about it, since I've yet to be in a car where someone vomited up blood, and that's happened to me twice in New York.
...Rain. It was a nice idea back when we had to grow crops or whatever, but this is the twenty-first century, people. I know you've got traumatising memories about giant domes, but maybe you should look into it, OK? Because this is just out of hand.
...It's a lot easier to listen to English lecturers. This is probably because their accent makes me think that they are smart.
...I miss Josh. A lot. And I was trying to be all secretive and cagey about it, but the guy in the second picture of the last entry was him. That's my treat to you: if you have to put up with crappy, infrequent posts like this one, then at least you can sneak a peek at the one I love.
...More or less an aside: You know that feeling you get at the start of any given endeavour (in my case, generally academic) where you're totally inspired by the new beginning and become utterly convinced that This Time It'll Be Different, you won't just turn lazy and stop putting any effort into the endeavour in question after two weeks, this time you'll really Get Shit Done? I hate that feeling.
...Holy shit, this internet cafe just started playing Prince's "Gett Off."
...Despite my grumbling, I really do like it here. I think. It feels like years since I lived in New York, though a lot of that's a function of being in Florida for winter break... I don't know. I think I'm feeling that sense of "homelessness" and constant migration that Salman Rushdie's so hung up on, not to get too wanky about it. Though I shouldn't apologize for using a literary reference. I'm starting to realize that it might be time to take my major seriously for a little while and do some goddamn reading and writing. Just a thought.
...It's a really shitty edit of "Gett Off," though. You people can show boobs in your newspapers and can't allow "ass" on your Muzak? PRIORITIES.
...This list format is rapidly breaking down.
This post didn't turn out as stellar as I'd hoped, so once again, I urge you all to expect very little of this space for a while.
(And speaking of which, my apologies for the site-load issues we'd been experiencing -- Dreamhost did some backend twiddling that I hadn't told them to alert me to, and as a result Movable Type couldn't rebuild the necessary files. Everything should be working smoothly now; let me know if it isn't... (try cjc259 AT nyu DOT edu, since my Dreamhost webmail is not working smoothly.)
...Nobody in this town knows how to walk down a sidewalk. The basic passerby-avoidance skills that every New Yorker acquires within fifteen minutes of their arrival (otherwise, they would die) are simply incomprehensible to Londoners, who either simply ramble down the sidewalks in gently arcing paths, making sure to cover every inch of terrain, or else are simply entirely unaware of other human beings as they barrel forward in a straight line (though not in that DO NOT FUCK WITH ME way in which New Yorkers do their barreling). It's very frustrating.
...CD prices vary so widely that there is simply no point in trying to think of what it's costing you in dollars; you might as well just surrender and buy them anyway. As you can imagine, this has been a terrible development for me, and I have already turned to prostitution to cover my habit.
...The Underground is faster, cleaner, and easier to navigate than the New York subway. It is also much more expensive, and shuts down for no good reason at midnight. On the whole, though, I get the feeling that Londoners should stop whining about it, since I've yet to be in a car where someone vomited up blood, and that's happened to me twice in New York.
...Rain. It was a nice idea back when we had to grow crops or whatever, but this is the twenty-first century, people. I know you've got traumatising memories about giant domes, but maybe you should look into it, OK? Because this is just out of hand.
...It's a lot easier to listen to English lecturers. This is probably because their accent makes me think that they are smart.
...I miss Josh. A lot. And I was trying to be all secretive and cagey about it, but the guy in the second picture of the last entry was him. That's my treat to you: if you have to put up with crappy, infrequent posts like this one, then at least you can sneak a peek at the one I love.
...More or less an aside: You know that feeling you get at the start of any given endeavour (in my case, generally academic) where you're totally inspired by the new beginning and become utterly convinced that This Time It'll Be Different, you won't just turn lazy and stop putting any effort into the endeavour in question after two weeks, this time you'll really Get Shit Done? I hate that feeling.
...Holy shit, this internet cafe just started playing Prince's "Gett Off."
...Despite my grumbling, I really do like it here. I think. It feels like years since I lived in New York, though a lot of that's a function of being in Florida for winter break... I don't know. I think I'm feeling that sense of "homelessness" and constant migration that Salman Rushdie's so hung up on, not to get too wanky about it. Though I shouldn't apologize for using a literary reference. I'm starting to realize that it might be time to take my major seriously for a little while and do some goddamn reading and writing. Just a thought.
...It's a really shitty edit of "Gett Off," though. You people can show boobs in your newspapers and can't allow "ass" on your Muzak? PRIORITIES.
...This list format is rapidly breaking down.
This post didn't turn out as stellar as I'd hoped, so once again, I urge you all to expect very little of this space for a while.
(And speaking of which, my apologies for the site-load issues we'd been experiencing -- Dreamhost did some backend twiddling that I hadn't told them to alert me to, and as a result Movable Type couldn't rebuild the necessary files. Everything should be working smoothly now; let me know if it isn't... (try cjc259 AT nyu DOT edu, since my Dreamhost webmail is not working smoothly.)
01.17.2003 | Pictures Without Explanations
Back to top >>