Hello there, autumn! You're wonderful but I have such little time to enjoy anything outside of school. So, I'll post a...playlist? of ten songs? Is that cool? I hope so. There's no theme to anything of this. It probably won't be worth listening to.
1. Active Child - Hanging On
2. Bjork - Virus
3. Bon Iver - Holocene
4. Elliott Smith - Independence Day
5. Freelance Whales - Location(it sounds like a over-edited tumblr photo, but forgive me--it is a guilty pleasure)
6. Gold panda - Quitters Raga
7. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
8. Joanna Newsom - Peach Plum Pear
9. Laura Marling - My Manic and I
10. Neutral Milk hotel - Holland 1945
11. Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
I should fashion myself a taste in music one of these days.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
this song is like an 80s movie
guys
this song
it's like every 80s teen movie thrown in a blender and made into a song. excuse me for thinking it's brilliant. and for writing like this is tumblr.
so, uh, school. my life. what's been happening. I can't really summarize the whole thing in a cohesive manner.
We're reading Hemingway in English which is...kind of okay. It's war stories. I have no taste in books! Let's embrace it! I spent the first week of school lost in On The Road and everything's seemed so dull since. Everything about me is an affection, eh? Again, let's skip round this point and pretend I've got anything to say. it takes a lot to interest me in a war story, and not even Hemingway has that power, generally. I wanna read his other stuff, though, cause it just seems like the sort of thing you should read, you know? However, I'm kind of okay with all of that nonsense because the class is a literary wasteland as it is. the inane teaching style continues! We're forced to write poetry about these stories. Forced to write poetry. This is something that should never, ever happen. Like, ever. Nothing good ever comes out of forced group poetry-writing sessions, and the teacher knows it. However, she does seem irritatingly willing to display this train wreck AB-rhyme scheme poetry all across the room. other than covering up the walls, which are a shade of blue reminiscent of bad bathroom design, I don't see where she's coming from on this. Oh, we draw pictures too. Despite my teacher's hope that she can suck some creativity out of before the school's collective 9:30 caffeine buzz sets in, the result is usually forty five-minute long discussions about anything else. When we get to chose our own groups, the results are usually good; I end up with two girls I sort of know and am sort of ambivalent about, and most of their discussions revolve about how 'Asian' their families are, and I nod and smile at that. And I can usually read and whatever at these times. When we don't get to choose our groups, the result is a highly tedious class filled with occasional awkward almost-conversations with people I don't know. The people around me get to class early, and are a curiously comical bunch, in a really contrived way. Think Friends. Yeah. At least, that's how they see themselves. Sigh. Luckily, we're reading Gatsby soon(finallyfinallyfinally though it's only been like three weeks) which might just be the pinnacle of my year.
Algebra is usually filled with sly, sarcastic comments on the part of everyone around me, but the teacher gives us breaks and I can read. My parents, after open house, dew scribed my teacher as 'extremely weird'. My teacher has mistakenly given me a 100.0 average in that class.
and the pseudo-politicized debates rage on in 20th century history. The focus seems more to be on current affairs than the actual 20th century. For all I hear(and ignore) politics at school and what have you, it seems very few people actually walk the walk about this stuff. the whole class tests the limits of my teacher's knowledge. Unlike most history teachers and their beliefs, who I've rarely had good experiences with, he's actually okay at not being completely biased. We're supposed to have an actual debate soon. And, we're switching seats on Monday. Maybe I won't get stuck sitting next to a bigoted, stupid person who never shuts up and shows up to class twenty minutes late to class every day and thinks it makes her look all out-there to the teacher. and maybe we'll move on from the fucking economy one of these days, because this is pretty much the only area of politics where I can summon absolutely no interest and the extended discussions about it are surely killing me.
then in bio, we do labs and talk and proteins, and I'm struck by a niggling paranoia that everyone in there hates me. no matter, I suppose. I got an above average score on a test so all is well.
At the beginning of the school year, I always react weirdly to everyone around me. I don't do camp or anything much in the summer, so I'm not very social. I'm definitely an introvert, so this works out nicely. I'm not the most introverted person you'll ever meet or any ting, but I'm definitely sort of uncommonly introverted, I would say. at least based on how people behave at school. This I reckon is the reason why, when I'm thrown back into this highly social environment, it can be sort of startling and bewildering for me. Sometimes I really rather like having people around me(granted, it's sometimes in a sort of Dean Moriarty-like way, which is shameful, but I digress), and other times I can sort of panic and all of a sudden I decide to live my life as a recluse in rural England and nevereverever see anyone ever again. I'm always at one end of the spectrum or the other, and until I can become accustomed to it again, which can take up to two months, I can go through these horrible cycles. It's...irritating. It characterizes autumn, and the beginning of school is usually cool, but it's iterating all the same. it's the main, melodramatic point of general annoyance for me at the moment. Fucking leave me alone sometimes, people.
I saw Bill Bailey recently. He's a music comedian dude. He's no Tim Minchin, but he's very smart and funny and interesting. The venue didn't sell out so our seats got upgraded! We were ten feet away! His show was sort of weird combination of a lot of topics, but it was very good so I would highly recommend it. And then it was this sort of fair thing in the center of town recently, and the stalls weren't very good buI i saw a bunch of my friends do their Show Choir thing so that was fun. We hung out downtown, then I got a bagel and a Coolata, and came home. They had music, weird Beatles cover bands and folk groups and that sort of thing. I don't like seeing people I vaguely know outside of school, but remarkably managed to tolerate it that day. also, there were puppies.
My favorite things at the moment are the Thick of It, the Inbetweeners, Kerouac, Fantasia, the National, and I'm in a weird phase where I just wanna listen to Nirvana's In Utero constantly. Man, I hadn't listened to that album in three years. It's an amazing record. Autumn's almost here! I went to a Greek festival one weekend, but all the other weekends I just watch TV and read and buy books and watch Doctor Who and hang out with friends and put off all homework until Sunday night.
That is all for now.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
two weeks oh my god school ahhhh
Due to the fact that I couldn't blog in England, things have got extremely backed up and now I'm a fortnight behind. I'm just so neurotic that I just couldn't let this slip by without panicking...quite a lot.
so, anyway.
Interestingly, jetlag is sort of a joy when you're comng back from England. The other way round, it's horrific, I go to bed initially in the middle of the afternoon and then really late, I feel like I'm living in a crack den. However, the other way round, and you do everything so early. I think I might be a morning person, if I get enough sleep. Waking up at 5 in the morning comfortably is wonderful, you feel like you have one up on the rest of the world and you just watch everyone waker up around you. This probably only works when it's warm. Also, it's not really a viable thing I can do the rest of the year, so I enjoy it when I can. First thing I did when I got home was check the mail for the all-important schedule, which reads
1st Semester--B1 English, B2 Algebra, B3 20th Century History, B4 Biology. 2nd Semester B1 B Gym B1 G Study, B2 Chemistry, B3 algebra, B4 Spanish. My initial reaction was severe disappointment that I was not in classes with anyone I knew. However, Eglish 1st block is good. Gym and study 1st blog? Not good. Not good at all. Chemistyr is a junior class that sophomores can take, but are advised against because the school has no money and the money they do have they are still keeping in schools, and even then they pay for it with paper clips or something. Remarkably, however, I did get into Chemistry so I now I get to be with scary people a year older than me. This could be a great opportunity to learn some fascinating things and meet some different people, or a horrible, horrible place where I’m embarrassed , humiliated, and perpetually confused. Time will tell. I couldn’t really see any benefits in the way my schedule worked out.
Over the course of the week running up to school, I became fluent in Inbetweeners references, purchased binders, listened to the National, frantically worked on my summer reading assignment at the last minute, went to the beach, picked plums and raspberries, bought clothes, went for walks, and ate bagels. It was refreshing to be able to wear summer clothes, proper summer clothes, not English summer clothes again. However, that didn’t stop the week from being extremely depressing. It peaked Monday evening, of course, packing my bag after I’d literally just finished with the reading questions (ten questions, ten pages, a good way to start the year). School isn’t horrific and autumn is cool and everything, I like autumn as much as everyone else, but I love summer too and I love the freedom and being away from people. It was tough to deal with. I’m probably hopelessly jetlagged, but I barely remember anything about that week at all.
I’ve become accustomed to the idea that no matter how late I stay up the night before, I’m always wide awake for the first day of school, ready to attack the new year. For whatever reason, this didn’t apply this year, and I had drag myself out of bed and get ready for a bus that was arriving a whole fifteen minutes than it had the year before. It became clear over the first day that after four + years of whining and begging for money, the school system had actually used some initiative and –woah—made some effort to save some money! Part of me was happy that had happened, but another was annoyed that my bus now had to pick up almost twice as many people in a really out-of-the-way route that got to the school twenty minutes later. Most everyone else was there already. I rushed to my locker, which isn’t as well placed as I would ideally have it, and saw one friend. I realized the sophomores had dived right in to their policy of being unnecessarily vicious to the (generally) innocuous freshman. Then, I grudgingly made my way to the English classroom, placed in the physical science hallway. The worst hallway in the school. I found one person in my class. I don’t know her well but we have an abundance of mutual friends. She’s the sort of person who seems outlandish and loud and obnoxious whenever you see her with others, but when you get her alone, she’s alright. The only significant amount of time I spent with her was about two years ago in gym class, where we walked to a joined last place when running the mile. In the hall I talked to some other people I vaguely know, and then we were let in. The room is painted blue! Thank christ, otherwise it’d be miserable. I wasn’t overly impressed with the selection of people I was to be with for the next five months. I have no friends, maybe five fairly close acquaintances? I’ll live. The best part of that class was getting a seat in the very back corner of the class! The teacher, to my horror, reminded me of my 8th grade English&Social Studies teacher...an experience I never want replicated again. We had to announce a fact to the class—and I got the I’m British thing out of the way, thank god, nothing more awkward than me talking in front of the class six weeks after school starts and everyone realizing my accent. The teacher seemed surprisingly into what we were talking about, giving out handouts et cetera, rules, and a list of books we’re gonna read. It looks...okay. Poetry and some stuff. Gatsby will make this entire class worth it. Gatsby can make anything worth it.
Algebra second block. My teacher, I was told by many beforehand, is evil personified. She’s also an old lady with a navely voice who is about four and a half feet tall. She let us sit wherever we want, however—something she has continued to do to this day. My feelings on the class members were initially mixed, but I warmed up over time. The female side of the room gets on very well indeed. No friends, maybe two or three likable acquaintances. There was someone who I’ve been trying to avoid for upwards of two years, as she brings on the most petty and vindictive parts of me. She has since switched out, due to clashes with the teaching style. (ha.) The only other person I outwardly dislike is the freshman whose parents are pushing her too much. She makes a show of sitting on the male side of the room every day, doing the whole “girls are so bitchy!” routine. (sigh). Oddly think this teacher might actually work for me. She goes at the perfect pace, and actually discourages group work! That is so rare, and I find nothing more hindering to thought and work than having to share it with others. We dived right into basic algebra for the first day.
20th century. For whatever reason we’re in a huge classroom built for combined English/SS courses. My teacher is intense and gregarious and has the biggest Napoleon Complex going on I’ve ever seen. He’s pretty cool. We were put into tables. I knew one person. We discussed the themes of the year. It doesn’t look interesting. A lot of economy and business and stuff.
This semester I have third, and last, lunch and it. Is. Hell. B Days I have on friend. G days, it seems like half the school is there. It’s so cramped and the tables are horrid and the food(cutscutscuts) isn’t good. Plus this year they had rodent problems so now we’re not allowed to leave the cafeteria at all ever—all 600 of us! I hate it.
There was a switch with my bio class but all worked out. My teacher is confident, eloquent, abrasive, and intimidating—much like last year’s physical science teacher. Her class scares me, but the content—genetics! Genetics! Genetics!—fascinates me. We did talk about the scientific theory yet a fucking again, for some reason. We understand it by now, damn it!
I’ve basically got into the school routine again. Some hiccups, but overall things are going nicely. People are decent and I’ve plenty of time to be alone this year, so I don’t do that thing where I feel, I don’t know, socially claustrophobic and take it out on someone and end up feeling very guilty indeed. English, we’ve read Maggie A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, which was okay but had cool descriptions of turn of the century New York, and now we’re reading Hemingway’s not-so-good stuff. We’re put into groups and told to write poems and draw pictures, so basically I do anything other. I got a 95 on my summer reading essay. I also got a 95 on my first algebra test, best grade in the class, and my algebra teacher actually likes me. (I have a funny knack of getting math teachers to like me, whereas all other teachers generally dislike me. I’m not exceptionally good at math, especially not algebra). 20th century goes in no logical order whatsoever, like we started this week with Teddy Roosevelt, were at Stalin by Wednesday, and ended with the Great Depression. We talk politicspoliticspolitics like there’s no tomorrow, but luckily we only have one of those uber-politicized usually Republican ‘GAWD BLESS AMERICA’ people, which is half the only reason i avoid politics in the first place. The girl I sit next to is annoying beyond reason, I was arguing against her convoluted idea that global warming is a conspiracy for the government to make money, to the point where the whole class was staring at us. And I got a 94 on a Bio test(yay) and got lukewarm grades on a slew of labs.
Also, philosophy club us starting again. It’s where me and my friend go after school on Fridays and there are these two uber nerdy smart senior girls who wanna talk about culture and morality and reason, and I have nothing to say, and sometimes there’s this guy who’s into conspiracy theories involving Hitler and gays. It’s an endearingly dysfunctional little thing. They’re dying for new members, but then they seemed to deflate a bit when we’d peer-pressured a horde of vaguely interested sophomores to tag along. This week we talked religion, the head of the club spewed Dawkins and I tried to throw out some almost coherent stuff about it, as I at least paid attention to it in a Tim Minchin-fueled fervor last year. Despite this, I’m still horribly conflicted on the whole subject. (like, on the one hand, religion does all this bad stuff, but on the other hand it makes people happy/find meaning, et cetera...aaaand I guess I’m pretty into logic reason and all that jazz, but not everyone is, so I consider it a bit silly for some anti-thesists to just say a more rational lifestyle would be better. Also, I know someone people say just because it makes someone happy it doesn’t make it right and perpetuating something moderately gives room for extremists. On the former, I don’t really know or particularly care, it’s their lives and they’re not hurting anyone. On the latter, this is true of many things. Basically, I don’t know. I don’t want to get a reputation as a sort of Oh God Please Shut Up You Stupid Atheist Bigot type person, you know? I’ve been an atheist my whole life and never had it occurred to me that there was much wrong with religion till I saw all these comedians hating it. And sometimes I wish I’d stayed the type of atheist I was when I was younger, completely, with being 100% cool with theists. But now my thinking has been skewed way off by these other atheists, and I don’t like it. Basically I’ve just seen the whole thing get out of hand and it’d probably just be helpful if we A.) Stopped treating religion as an entity unto itself away so that both ardent critics and ardent supports can be seen as reasonable people and B.) Stopped calling each other stupid and making wild generalizations. Basically, let’s all be happy happy happy and let all the Christians and atheists hold hands and make daisy chains together. Bet it’s hard to see why I fear judgment from the senior girls isn’t it).
I saw the National on Friday! It was glorious. I mention this whenever I get the chance, but High Violet is my favorite record. If you don’t own it, you have got to buy it. Sometimes it can be really beautiful and elegant and it can also be this dark, clunky thing. I don’t know how they do that, but it’s the most brilliant selection of music I know. This is my second time seeing them, though first time I only went for the support band. This time, the supports did almost nothing for me. Wye Oak is lo-fi guitar music with a female singer wailing over the top. Think Warpaint mixed with a duller Florence Welch. and then there’s Yo la Tengo, who I thought would be really arty and trendy and happy and in college, but turns out they’ve been around since like 1985 and their music is weird beyond my comprehension and too hard for me to listen to. The arena is this summer-only half open tent thing really close to the coast, and behind you you can see all of Boston, it’s great. Plus, the crowd was great, really pleasant and tolerable and varied. Live, the National, they’re great, they’re all wearing suits and the lights are dark and my god, Matt Berninger’s voice. And just Matt Berninger in general. How can you look so subdued and have so much passion at the same time? Let me know of your secrets, you amazing person! They played a lot of old stuff and the night was really, really great. I’m just annoyed we didn’t get Lemon World or Mistaken for Strangers. But we got Runaway, Anyone’s Ghost, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Squalor Victoria, Conversation 16, Sorrow, and England, among others. Oh, and Terrible Love was great, Matt got into the crowd and all! They ended with Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, which is a breathtaking song, and they played it was just a high hat and an acoustic and the whole crowd singing every word. That was inspired. Honest to god, one of the best songs live I’ve ever heard. Such a great gig, such a great band, such a shame I haven’t been into them for longer. Highly, highly recommend these guys.
Nothing else interesting at the moment. My interest in music has been briefly rejuvenated even more. The National, Leonard Cohen, Massive Attack, Los Campesions, The Stranglers, the Walkmen,, et cetera. Just finished reading On The Road and officially add it to my terribly contrived Favorite Books list. My Inbetweeners obsession then moved into The Thick of It obsession, which in case anyone is wondering is one of the best things ever because Armando Iannucci is the best comedy writer ever, and he doubles with Jesse Armstrong who writes Peep Show for this so it’s perfection. Also I’m still watching Doctor Who and am not really liking the fall weatherquite as much as the summer. Otherwise, things are alright. I’ve spent the weekends being stressed, watching DVDs, going downtown, going to a Greek Festival, and going into Boston.
Sorry for the tedious update and whatnot, I’ll post marginally less stupid stuff at some point.
so, anyway.
Interestingly, jetlag is sort of a joy when you're comng back from England. The other way round, it's horrific, I go to bed initially in the middle of the afternoon and then really late, I feel like I'm living in a crack den. However, the other way round, and you do everything so early. I think I might be a morning person, if I get enough sleep. Waking up at 5 in the morning comfortably is wonderful, you feel like you have one up on the rest of the world and you just watch everyone waker up around you. This probably only works when it's warm. Also, it's not really a viable thing I can do the rest of the year, so I enjoy it when I can. First thing I did when I got home was check the mail for the all-important schedule, which reads
1st Semester--B1 English, B2 Algebra, B3 20th Century History, B4 Biology. 2nd Semester B1 B Gym B1 G Study, B2 Chemistry, B3 algebra, B4 Spanish. My initial reaction was severe disappointment that I was not in classes with anyone I knew. However, Eglish 1st block is good. Gym and study 1st blog? Not good. Not good at all. Chemistyr is a junior class that sophomores can take, but are advised against because the school has no money and the money they do have they are still keeping in schools, and even then they pay for it with paper clips or something. Remarkably, however, I did get into Chemistry so I now I get to be with scary people a year older than me. This could be a great opportunity to learn some fascinating things and meet some different people, or a horrible, horrible place where I’m embarrassed , humiliated, and perpetually confused. Time will tell. I couldn’t really see any benefits in the way my schedule worked out.
Over the course of the week running up to school, I became fluent in Inbetweeners references, purchased binders, listened to the National, frantically worked on my summer reading assignment at the last minute, went to the beach, picked plums and raspberries, bought clothes, went for walks, and ate bagels. It was refreshing to be able to wear summer clothes, proper summer clothes, not English summer clothes again. However, that didn’t stop the week from being extremely depressing. It peaked Monday evening, of course, packing my bag after I’d literally just finished with the reading questions (ten questions, ten pages, a good way to start the year). School isn’t horrific and autumn is cool and everything, I like autumn as much as everyone else, but I love summer too and I love the freedom and being away from people. It was tough to deal with. I’m probably hopelessly jetlagged, but I barely remember anything about that week at all.
I’ve become accustomed to the idea that no matter how late I stay up the night before, I’m always wide awake for the first day of school, ready to attack the new year. For whatever reason, this didn’t apply this year, and I had drag myself out of bed and get ready for a bus that was arriving a whole fifteen minutes than it had the year before. It became clear over the first day that after four + years of whining and begging for money, the school system had actually used some initiative and –woah—made some effort to save some money! Part of me was happy that had happened, but another was annoyed that my bus now had to pick up almost twice as many people in a really out-of-the-way route that got to the school twenty minutes later. Most everyone else was there already. I rushed to my locker, which isn’t as well placed as I would ideally have it, and saw one friend. I realized the sophomores had dived right in to their policy of being unnecessarily vicious to the (generally) innocuous freshman. Then, I grudgingly made my way to the English classroom, placed in the physical science hallway. The worst hallway in the school. I found one person in my class. I don’t know her well but we have an abundance of mutual friends. She’s the sort of person who seems outlandish and loud and obnoxious whenever you see her with others, but when you get her alone, she’s alright. The only significant amount of time I spent with her was about two years ago in gym class, where we walked to a joined last place when running the mile. In the hall I talked to some other people I vaguely know, and then we were let in. The room is painted blue! Thank christ, otherwise it’d be miserable. I wasn’t overly impressed with the selection of people I was to be with for the next five months. I have no friends, maybe five fairly close acquaintances? I’ll live. The best part of that class was getting a seat in the very back corner of the class! The teacher, to my horror, reminded me of my 8th grade English&Social Studies teacher...an experience I never want replicated again. We had to announce a fact to the class—and I got the I’m British thing out of the way, thank god, nothing more awkward than me talking in front of the class six weeks after school starts and everyone realizing my accent. The teacher seemed surprisingly into what we were talking about, giving out handouts et cetera, rules, and a list of books we’re gonna read. It looks...okay. Poetry and some stuff. Gatsby will make this entire class worth it. Gatsby can make anything worth it.
Algebra second block. My teacher, I was told by many beforehand, is evil personified. She’s also an old lady with a navely voice who is about four and a half feet tall. She let us sit wherever we want, however—something she has continued to do to this day. My feelings on the class members were initially mixed, but I warmed up over time. The female side of the room gets on very well indeed. No friends, maybe two or three likable acquaintances. There was someone who I’ve been trying to avoid for upwards of two years, as she brings on the most petty and vindictive parts of me. She has since switched out, due to clashes with the teaching style. (ha.) The only other person I outwardly dislike is the freshman whose parents are pushing her too much. She makes a show of sitting on the male side of the room every day, doing the whole “girls are so bitchy!” routine. (sigh). Oddly think this teacher might actually work for me. She goes at the perfect pace, and actually discourages group work! That is so rare, and I find nothing more hindering to thought and work than having to share it with others. We dived right into basic algebra for the first day.
20th century. For whatever reason we’re in a huge classroom built for combined English/SS courses. My teacher is intense and gregarious and has the biggest Napoleon Complex going on I’ve ever seen. He’s pretty cool. We were put into tables. I knew one person. We discussed the themes of the year. It doesn’t look interesting. A lot of economy and business and stuff.
This semester I have third, and last, lunch and it. Is. Hell. B Days I have on friend. G days, it seems like half the school is there. It’s so cramped and the tables are horrid and the food(cutscutscuts) isn’t good. Plus this year they had rodent problems so now we’re not allowed to leave the cafeteria at all ever—all 600 of us! I hate it.
There was a switch with my bio class but all worked out. My teacher is confident, eloquent, abrasive, and intimidating—much like last year’s physical science teacher. Her class scares me, but the content—genetics! Genetics! Genetics!—fascinates me. We did talk about the scientific theory yet a fucking again, for some reason. We understand it by now, damn it!
I’ve basically got into the school routine again. Some hiccups, but overall things are going nicely. People are decent and I’ve plenty of time to be alone this year, so I don’t do that thing where I feel, I don’t know, socially claustrophobic and take it out on someone and end up feeling very guilty indeed. English, we’ve read Maggie A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, which was okay but had cool descriptions of turn of the century New York, and now we’re reading Hemingway’s not-so-good stuff. We’re put into groups and told to write poems and draw pictures, so basically I do anything other. I got a 95 on my summer reading essay. I also got a 95 on my first algebra test, best grade in the class, and my algebra teacher actually likes me. (I have a funny knack of getting math teachers to like me, whereas all other teachers generally dislike me. I’m not exceptionally good at math, especially not algebra). 20th century goes in no logical order whatsoever, like we started this week with Teddy Roosevelt, were at Stalin by Wednesday, and ended with the Great Depression. We talk politicspoliticspolitics like there’s no tomorrow, but luckily we only have one of those uber-politicized usually Republican ‘GAWD BLESS AMERICA’ people, which is half the only reason i avoid politics in the first place. The girl I sit next to is annoying beyond reason, I was arguing against her convoluted idea that global warming is a conspiracy for the government to make money, to the point where the whole class was staring at us. And I got a 94 on a Bio test(yay) and got lukewarm grades on a slew of labs.
Also, philosophy club us starting again. It’s where me and my friend go after school on Fridays and there are these two uber nerdy smart senior girls who wanna talk about culture and morality and reason, and I have nothing to say, and sometimes there’s this guy who’s into conspiracy theories involving Hitler and gays. It’s an endearingly dysfunctional little thing. They’re dying for new members, but then they seemed to deflate a bit when we’d peer-pressured a horde of vaguely interested sophomores to tag along. This week we talked religion, the head of the club spewed Dawkins and I tried to throw out some almost coherent stuff about it, as I at least paid attention to it in a Tim Minchin-fueled fervor last year. Despite this, I’m still horribly conflicted on the whole subject. (like, on the one hand, religion does all this bad stuff, but on the other hand it makes people happy/find meaning, et cetera...aaaand I guess I’m pretty into logic reason and all that jazz, but not everyone is, so I consider it a bit silly for some anti-thesists to just say a more rational lifestyle would be better. Also, I know someone people say just because it makes someone happy it doesn’t make it right and perpetuating something moderately gives room for extremists. On the former, I don’t really know or particularly care, it’s their lives and they’re not hurting anyone. On the latter, this is true of many things. Basically, I don’t know. I don’t want to get a reputation as a sort of Oh God Please Shut Up You Stupid Atheist Bigot type person, you know? I’ve been an atheist my whole life and never had it occurred to me that there was much wrong with religion till I saw all these comedians hating it. And sometimes I wish I’d stayed the type of atheist I was when I was younger, completely, with being 100% cool with theists. But now my thinking has been skewed way off by these other atheists, and I don’t like it. Basically I’ve just seen the whole thing get out of hand and it’d probably just be helpful if we A.) Stopped treating religion as an entity unto itself away so that both ardent critics and ardent supports can be seen as reasonable people and B.) Stopped calling each other stupid and making wild generalizations. Basically, let’s all be happy happy happy and let all the Christians and atheists hold hands and make daisy chains together. Bet it’s hard to see why I fear judgment from the senior girls isn’t it).
I saw the National on Friday! It was glorious. I mention this whenever I get the chance, but High Violet is my favorite record. If you don’t own it, you have got to buy it. Sometimes it can be really beautiful and elegant and it can also be this dark, clunky thing. I don’t know how they do that, but it’s the most brilliant selection of music I know. This is my second time seeing them, though first time I only went for the support band. This time, the supports did almost nothing for me. Wye Oak is lo-fi guitar music with a female singer wailing over the top. Think Warpaint mixed with a duller Florence Welch. and then there’s Yo la Tengo, who I thought would be really arty and trendy and happy and in college, but turns out they’ve been around since like 1985 and their music is weird beyond my comprehension and too hard for me to listen to. The arena is this summer-only half open tent thing really close to the coast, and behind you you can see all of Boston, it’s great. Plus, the crowd was great, really pleasant and tolerable and varied. Live, the National, they’re great, they’re all wearing suits and the lights are dark and my god, Matt Berninger’s voice. And just Matt Berninger in general. How can you look so subdued and have so much passion at the same time? Let me know of your secrets, you amazing person! They played a lot of old stuff and the night was really, really great. I’m just annoyed we didn’t get Lemon World or Mistaken for Strangers. But we got Runaway, Anyone’s Ghost, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Squalor Victoria, Conversation 16, Sorrow, and England, among others. Oh, and Terrible Love was great, Matt got into the crowd and all! They ended with Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, which is a breathtaking song, and they played it was just a high hat and an acoustic and the whole crowd singing every word. That was inspired. Honest to god, one of the best songs live I’ve ever heard. Such a great gig, such a great band, such a shame I haven’t been into them for longer. Highly, highly recommend these guys.
Nothing else interesting at the moment. My interest in music has been briefly rejuvenated even more. The National, Leonard Cohen, Massive Attack, Los Campesions, The Stranglers, the Walkmen,, et cetera. Just finished reading On The Road and officially add it to my terribly contrived Favorite Books list. My Inbetweeners obsession then moved into The Thick of It obsession, which in case anyone is wondering is one of the best things ever because Armando Iannucci is the best comedy writer ever, and he doubles with Jesse Armstrong who writes Peep Show for this so it’s perfection. Also I’m still watching Doctor Who and am not really liking the fall weatherquite as much as the summer. Otherwise, things are alright. I’ve spent the weekends being stressed, watching DVDs, going downtown, going to a Greek Festival, and going into Boston.
Sorry for the tedious update and whatnot, I’ll post marginally less stupid stuff at some point.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
things got weirdly busy
So, I was gonna blog while I was in England some more, but then the internet got shitty, and then I was gonna blog right after I got back, but then things got busy and stayed that way, and then it turns out it had been a fortnight since my last post. Thus, I present to you a post about the time I spent in an England, in an uncharacteristically concise manner. sort of.
I got to hang out with the friends I mentioned in my V Fest post a couple times. I think they're the only family I know where the term 'family friends' really applies.I went round to their house and played weird video games. Then, we drove to this park near where they live. It's all play equipment, but it's great, really dangerous in a way you rarely see anymore. trust me, it's cool.
We went to the zoo for my sister's birthday. god, that was tedious. I don't like or understand zoos in the slightest. Since it was cold and rainy, rather than unbearably hot, the animals were pretty active, which I guess was cool. despite this weather, the people there didn't seem particularly perturbed. that's the ultimate problem with zoos for me, as it is, unfortunately, for many public places. I suppose that's to be expected.
My splurging on whatever CDs and DVDs tickled my fancy continued throughout the remainder of my time in England. I'll say it once I'll say it again; HMV is an amazing place. I bought Tim Minchin, Metronomy, the Horrors, and finally--finally!--the new Wild Beasts record. All I would highly recommend. oh and speaking of music, congrats to PJ Harvey for winning the Mercury. She wasn't my favorite but Let England Shake is a good record, she totally deserved it anyway.
I bought new brown Wellingtons for V! I got to wear them in the end, which is odd because I was sure I wouldn't have to, and was buying them just to be certain, as I do so frequently. They were good quality, too, so it was worth it. This was done the day before V, which was extremely cold and wet. In the mean time, we got texts from our mad friend going out and buying baby clothes for a baby that isn't hers. We saw those guys again in the morning, too. we went for a walk and talked about crazy costumes for the festival.
After V died down, we took a trip to the town I used to live in. It's a little English village so yeah, it's basically the same as it always was. We went to the post office and down this country walk that was right by my house. And my old school! Which has gone to hell, as it's under new leadership and stuff. I find it rather unnerving going round where I used to live, as I sort of feel like I don't belong there at all, crazy as that may or may not seem. I feel intimidated. Also, I hate seeing people I know in public, especially people I haven't seen in ages, which is very likely to happen there so I was in a panic for a lot of that. I still sort of miss that place, but it's getting better every year. The people in our old house haven't changed it too much, too, which in itself is very comforting. We tried to get into the V site, but it was blocked off for more than a week after the fest ended. We ended up just driving around little villages, and I listened to Cat's Eyes. And oh yes, clothes! I'm judgemental so I like to compare the clothes in America and England, like I did last year, even though my fashion knowledge extends to oversized t-shirts and going "ooh look at that picture! Miu Miu shoes!". Last year I recall saying I liked England's clothes more; this year I side with the States. English girls like to wear floral patterned everything at the moment. I got a weird top with a swan on it that made me feel like the girl in Crystal Castles. And then I got stripy skinny jeans! Oh god, stripy skinny jeans. I shouldn't be let near clothes, I just can't be trusted to make good decisions.
I didn't see many old friends while over there, but I did get to hang out with these two girls I used to know. One I went to school with, and was friends with, the other I saw only a few times a year but we always got on well. I hadn't seen the latter for three years. She is now that most endearingly gregarious of people: a drama kid! I had to try to talk musicals. Although actually the worst bits were talking school, particularly cause I felt so distant from all of the stuff they do. Not that I want to do GCSE's, big tests scare me to the extreme, last week my mom proposed the idea of my taking the PSATs in October and I went off on a teenage Temper Tantrum for most of the day. but all of the stuff that goes with the GCSEs, with being in the last year before Sixth Form, all of the menial elements of British school life...I wish I was part of it. It works, to some extent, the other way round too, though. They seemed to love the fact that I actually take "one of those yellow buses" to and from school. Also, we did this weird hippie thing involving the special powers of particular stones. I was surprised by how well us three got on, considering all our differences. Overall, a good day.
Spent one day in London. Train ride in listening to Elbow--beautiful record, though has obtained some scratches, god knows how, I've been careful with this disc. The old London rooftops are great. Because of the Olympics next year, they're doing all these renovations so London's tricky to move around in. I went to the Natural Science Museum! I haven't been in about ten years, we looked at crystals and stuff about space. Then, we hung around Harrods, and I looked at magazines, vintage movie posters, and the crazy expensive clothes they have there. Then, I went to the hard Rock Cafe! Which in itself isn't that great a place but I'm a stupid music geek. Lastly, my sister dragged us to Hamleys a half hour before closing time, and I lay in a heap in a state of semi-consciousness in the teddy bear section.
Here's something I like almost to the point of a fetish; historical reenactments. and a less edgy fetish there never has been. There's this manor house round where I used to live that does those circa Tudor, Elizabethan, and WWII at various points during the year. They have people dressed up inside the house, and then stalls and shops--making cheese, beer, etc.--in the surrounding area. This time round people were getting their Tudor on and there were about 150 of these actors wandering around. It's not like their big Elizabethan reenactment, where they have 250+people and it's amazing, but still it was pretty damn cool. Best people were the minstrels who wandered around the grounds, creepy alchemists in the woods, and the drunken layabouts having a party in the small brewery who attempted to slur some innuendo at us as we wandered past. I know, I know, romanticizing medieval Europe is all too easy when the sun is shining and you're just watching people play weird string instruments and such, but in reality those times weren't good, we've established all of this. Still, I just love the idea of being a Tudor for a day, you know? I could picture myself getting involved one day, if at the ridicule of everyone I know, except you basically have to talk to the general public, which is hardly my forte, is it? Damn my vacant social skills! And damn you, 2011. I just wanna pick herbs and bake bread and wear weird clothes all day.
I finally saw the Inbetweeners movie! Overall, pretty good. The Inbetweeners is very lovable, even when it's not at it's funniest. It's all about capturing a teenage sense of humor, and in this they did it brilliantly. the ending was very cliched, though, which is my main complaint. much as I love the Inbetweeners, a sequel would be awful.
Our last day wasn't good. Heathrow was hell. Yesterday's flight was cancelled cause of Irene, so they were trying to get twice as many people in. Tickets were a mess and it took an hour to check in, even though there were five people in front of us when we got in line. Also, I'd been quite sick for most of the week and was getting very anxious at everything. Not Heathrow at its best. The plane ride was okay though.
I know these posts are very late, I've written stuff already and I'll get that up soon.
I got to hang out with the friends I mentioned in my V Fest post a couple times. I think they're the only family I know where the term 'family friends' really applies.I went round to their house and played weird video games. Then, we drove to this park near where they live. It's all play equipment, but it's great, really dangerous in a way you rarely see anymore. trust me, it's cool.
We went to the zoo for my sister's birthday. god, that was tedious. I don't like or understand zoos in the slightest. Since it was cold and rainy, rather than unbearably hot, the animals were pretty active, which I guess was cool. despite this weather, the people there didn't seem particularly perturbed. that's the ultimate problem with zoos for me, as it is, unfortunately, for many public places. I suppose that's to be expected.
My splurging on whatever CDs and DVDs tickled my fancy continued throughout the remainder of my time in England. I'll say it once I'll say it again; HMV is an amazing place. I bought Tim Minchin, Metronomy, the Horrors, and finally--finally!--the new Wild Beasts record. All I would highly recommend. oh and speaking of music, congrats to PJ Harvey for winning the Mercury. She wasn't my favorite but Let England Shake is a good record, she totally deserved it anyway.
I bought new brown Wellingtons for V! I got to wear them in the end, which is odd because I was sure I wouldn't have to, and was buying them just to be certain, as I do so frequently. They were good quality, too, so it was worth it. This was done the day before V, which was extremely cold and wet. In the mean time, we got texts from our mad friend going out and buying baby clothes for a baby that isn't hers. We saw those guys again in the morning, too. we went for a walk and talked about crazy costumes for the festival.
After V died down, we took a trip to the town I used to live in. It's a little English village so yeah, it's basically the same as it always was. We went to the post office and down this country walk that was right by my house. And my old school! Which has gone to hell, as it's under new leadership and stuff. I find it rather unnerving going round where I used to live, as I sort of feel like I don't belong there at all, crazy as that may or may not seem. I feel intimidated. Also, I hate seeing people I know in public, especially people I haven't seen in ages, which is very likely to happen there so I was in a panic for a lot of that. I still sort of miss that place, but it's getting better every year. The people in our old house haven't changed it too much, too, which in itself is very comforting. We tried to get into the V site, but it was blocked off for more than a week after the fest ended. We ended up just driving around little villages, and I listened to Cat's Eyes. And oh yes, clothes! I'm judgemental so I like to compare the clothes in America and England, like I did last year, even though my fashion knowledge extends to oversized t-shirts and going "ooh look at that picture! Miu Miu shoes!". Last year I recall saying I liked England's clothes more; this year I side with the States. English girls like to wear floral patterned everything at the moment. I got a weird top with a swan on it that made me feel like the girl in Crystal Castles. And then I got stripy skinny jeans! Oh god, stripy skinny jeans. I shouldn't be let near clothes, I just can't be trusted to make good decisions.
I didn't see many old friends while over there, but I did get to hang out with these two girls I used to know. One I went to school with, and was friends with, the other I saw only a few times a year but we always got on well. I hadn't seen the latter for three years. She is now that most endearingly gregarious of people: a drama kid! I had to try to talk musicals. Although actually the worst bits were talking school, particularly cause I felt so distant from all of the stuff they do. Not that I want to do GCSE's, big tests scare me to the extreme, last week my mom proposed the idea of my taking the PSATs in October and I went off on a teenage Temper Tantrum for most of the day. but all of the stuff that goes with the GCSEs, with being in the last year before Sixth Form, all of the menial elements of British school life...I wish I was part of it. It works, to some extent, the other way round too, though. They seemed to love the fact that I actually take "one of those yellow buses" to and from school. Also, we did this weird hippie thing involving the special powers of particular stones. I was surprised by how well us three got on, considering all our differences. Overall, a good day.
Spent one day in London. Train ride in listening to Elbow--beautiful record, though has obtained some scratches, god knows how, I've been careful with this disc. The old London rooftops are great. Because of the Olympics next year, they're doing all these renovations so London's tricky to move around in. I went to the Natural Science Museum! I haven't been in about ten years, we looked at crystals and stuff about space. Then, we hung around Harrods, and I looked at magazines, vintage movie posters, and the crazy expensive clothes they have there. Then, I went to the hard Rock Cafe! Which in itself isn't that great a place but I'm a stupid music geek. Lastly, my sister dragged us to Hamleys a half hour before closing time, and I lay in a heap in a state of semi-consciousness in the teddy bear section.
Here's something I like almost to the point of a fetish; historical reenactments. and a less edgy fetish there never has been. There's this manor house round where I used to live that does those circa Tudor, Elizabethan, and WWII at various points during the year. They have people dressed up inside the house, and then stalls and shops--making cheese, beer, etc.--in the surrounding area. This time round people were getting their Tudor on and there were about 150 of these actors wandering around. It's not like their big Elizabethan reenactment, where they have 250+people and it's amazing, but still it was pretty damn cool. Best people were the minstrels who wandered around the grounds, creepy alchemists in the woods, and the drunken layabouts having a party in the small brewery who attempted to slur some innuendo at us as we wandered past. I know, I know, romanticizing medieval Europe is all too easy when the sun is shining and you're just watching people play weird string instruments and such, but in reality those times weren't good, we've established all of this. Still, I just love the idea of being a Tudor for a day, you know? I could picture myself getting involved one day, if at the ridicule of everyone I know, except you basically have to talk to the general public, which is hardly my forte, is it? Damn my vacant social skills! And damn you, 2011. I just wanna pick herbs and bake bread and wear weird clothes all day.
I finally saw the Inbetweeners movie! Overall, pretty good. The Inbetweeners is very lovable, even when it's not at it's funniest. It's all about capturing a teenage sense of humor, and in this they did it brilliantly. the ending was very cliched, though, which is my main complaint. much as I love the Inbetweeners, a sequel would be awful.
Our last day wasn't good. Heathrow was hell. Yesterday's flight was cancelled cause of Irene, so they were trying to get twice as many people in. Tickets were a mess and it took an hour to check in, even though there were five people in front of us when we got in line. Also, I'd been quite sick for most of the week and was getting very anxious at everything. Not Heathrow at its best. The plane ride was okay though.
I know these posts are very late, I've written stuff already and I'll get that up soon.
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