July 18, 2008
le burger
It's sort of funny that it took a transplanted Frenchman in America to help start a French craze for the oh so American burger in France. And it all wouldn't have happened without the popularity boom of upscaling the 'humble' burger and its variations on America's own dining scene. And then, doesn't it just go back to simple but good ingredients and a happy context? There's something about that aspect which jabs at the idea of a trend.
Whatever, I know I'm not making much sense. But what I really want to know, is what is the rectangular block accompanying the burger and the salad in the lead photo in the article??? Is this rectangular block tasty??? Now THAT's a story.
Posted by janet at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
July 2, 2008
wha?
The other day at work, we received a promo disc of Gregorian chant sung by Cistercian monks in Austria, innovatively titled: CHANT: Music for the Soul. The product description on Amazon helpfully offers: "Chant has proven to heal, calm and also give strength; its power is timeless and universal. Previous albums of chant have sold in the tens of millions."
And then my favorite: "Further fueling the huge general demand is Chant's use in the smash-hit computer game Halo - this is chant for a new computer-gaming generation."
CHANT FOR A NEW COMPUTER-GAMING GENERATION!!! I can't think of anything more amazing. That utterance will surely grab that segment of consumers!!
Posted by janet at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)
June 12, 2008
pun on seoul
I've come to expect an article about some aspect of Korean culture to pop up every few months in the NY Times. Oh Koreans, we love: golf; kimchi; learning English and studying a lot; drinking; drama; Rain; the internets; and changing social/patriarchal codes. These nutshells provide quite the concise kaleidoscope of a culture! I've been wondering how or why such coverage gets such regular airtime. Or maybe it's just one of those things you notice once you keep an eye for it and there are plenty of regular features on like Norway or Toronto or Indonesia.
Sometimes there are pieces that are like styrofoam that get into print for reasons that elude me. So many things irked me about this NYT Lives column -- a first person essay about an American living in Seoul. Perhaps his intention was to provide a lens, himself, through which we could understand something larger, something sharper, something clearer. But all Narcissus does is hold a mirror up to himself and admire it.
He's all: I am a foreigner in Seoul but that's okay because I feel like I belong! Because even though I do not speak the language, I can tell you the names of dishes and what they mean! I will even go so far as to use both the Korean and English term for dumpling, because either I or my editors forgot to include italics or parentheses. If it works for Little Caesars, it works for mandu dumplings! Seoul is, like, from the future! And the women here are, like, 75% plastic! And did I mention my students bow to me? Because I am the teacher, the Ivy-League Manliest American Writer and Gourmand. Dumpling dumpling! Bow to me, because my Korean girlfriend says I eat Korean food better than Korean men do. Bow to me because I have a Korean girlfriend! Bow to me, because I am so capable of understanding that Korean men think that I am stealing one of "their own" and I can use quote marks to indicate particular awareness of cultural sensitivity. Bow to me, because I am big enough to admit that I, too, have had to adjust to this Matrixy-Plasticky-Spicy world - I mean, what a surprise. Bow, kowtow to me because I take up the spotlight, I run the show.
*Grumble.*
p.s. I don't even know where to START with this vile vapidness.
*Despair, blurgh*
Posted by janet at 9:54 AM | Comments (1)
June 9, 2008
you gogurt
There's a supermarket in my town that is totally lame and should have given way to another REALLY NECESSARY bank branch or drug store. It's the store where one grabs one or two things because it's on the way. A recent trip there included a five minute search for avocados. When we found them, we realized, Oh, it's because they look like shriveled green walnuts. GROSS. Were they fossilized? Tiny New York bodegas are stocked better, luxuriously even, in comparison.
This particular supermarket, like many others, has a wall of yogurt. Next to the six brands of shredded cheese. MM! Mexican cheese! This particular wall of yogurt seems to offer that proud American freedom of choice. The challenge?? Finding full-fat yogurt. Not one. A WALL-FUL OF SUBSTITUTE FOR HUMAN EXPERIENCE!
Posted by janet at 9:35 AM | Comments (2)
June 5, 2008
now that's chicago manual of style
Slate blog Trailhead notes that Michelle and Barack exchange a close-fisted high-five before his big speech. Aw!
Posted by janet at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2008
slangless stylesheet
"Closed-fist high-fives" just makes me think of people punching each other with raised fists. Ow!
Posted by janet at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2007
twentysomething=cheesecake factory
What I thought was a brilliant analogy from its title turns out to be stupid fluff.
The only redemption? This comment:
"Um, I'm sorry, lady. But Twentysomething life so far has been like the Cheesecake Factory only in that it's unfairly difficult to afford, mostly tasteless, and has an atmosphere of fear and loathing. The 'large amount of menu items' has nothing to do with it..."
Posted by janet at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2007
mimiles and setaphors
Ooh errr. Thanks Ric Keller, or as our buddies must call you, R-Flay, for the most inept figurative language ever (from that snarky fellow at the Post):
"Fortunately, Ric Keller (R-Fla.) was on hand to restore gravity to the debate. He spoke about lawn care as a metaphor for Iraq:
'Imagine your next-door neighbor refuses to mow his lawn and the weeds are all the way up to his waist. You decide you are going to mow his lawn for him every single week. The neighbor never says thank you, he hates you, and sometimes he takes out a gun and shoots at you. Under these circumstances, do you keep mowing his lawn forever?'"
Wow. Things are so much clearer to me now.
Posted by janet at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2007
What is this "praise" you speak of?
NYmag has an article about how different kinds of praise affects kids. General blanket praise is found to be detrimental or at least not helpful in a kid's development or something like that because they opt not to try or work at things that they deem won't turn out successful.
Praise, much like potato chips and cable TV, was absent at the Fortress Nightingale (AND LOOK HOW GREAT I TURNED OUT), so this article read like Intro to Bizarro-World to me. It's tempting to bring in another blanket statement and say that praise is foreign to the old-school Korean upbringing way, but then there are those Korean parents who are sickeningly bragtastic about their stupid, not-so-special offspring.
But is this bizarro-world for anyone else? Is this white-people world? Were you praised as a child? Maybe I was, and I couldn't hear it over the clatter of my piano-practicing.
Posted by janet at 11:59 AM | Comments (5)
December 19, 2006
went a little overboard on the eggnog...
and now my hands don't work.
I know. I've been gone awhile. I suck. And my two readers are probably on vacation from work or school so are not procrastinating and thus are not reading this right now. Look at that chain of logic! Fourteen-carat please. So elegant.
Gotta love a Charlie Brown Christmas. And gotta love Scrubs-dubbed Charlie Brown Christmas. The show's been hit-or-miss for me, but this is hit-hit. My fav is Eliot as Sally. And I don't know how to do that embedding the youtube thing, so whatever.
When Schulz's Christmas special first came out, CBS was like: What? Jazz? at Christmas?. Silly rabbits. Alls I know is life wouldn't be complete without a little linus & lucy dancin'. Jeopardy über-champ weighs in on those Peanuts' crazy dance moves and deems Linus would be the winner in the event of a dance-off.
And that's my Peanuts-themed entry for the year. Sigh. I feel like Charlie Brown. Except with more hair.
Posted by janet at 2:47 PM | Comments (1)
November 20, 2006
Democracy is the new skinny jeans
Posted by janet at 2:25 PM | Comments (1)
November 16, 2006
grab a kazoo, let's have a duel
News flash: Dems crazy in the coconut!
Mr. Fowler sighed before letting out: “We’re nuts! We’re all nuts!”
Ah, a moving flash of insight into the human condition. Like microwaves.
At least, he was more coherent than this other dude: "Bah-bah-bah-bah, let me go to the first question,” Mr. Greenberg said haltingly..."
Conversation between Greenberg and Chan Marshall:
"Bah-bah-bah-bah"
"Oh, rarararar."
Yes, I love it.
Posted by janet at 10:04 AM | Comments (4)
November 14, 2006
Checking in, but not really, vanillaface.
Hi. You know what I'm missing? Lyricism, Crispness, and spicey-sweet desserts. That means I'm just a wet, rotting leaf that floated onto mediocre skim milky rice pudding instead of that warm pumpkin scone. It's enough to struggle halfheartedly with my leafy, limp hands.
Now I'm going to link to stuff.
I enjoyed this profile of Harry Reid, who is "the Man in the News," which is the title of this NYT news section. That seems like a rather silly title for a section, as if there being a man in the news is some sort of unnatural occurrence. I vote for "the Man in the Yellow Hat in the News" instead. Now that would turn heads. Anyways, Harry Reid, the next Senate Majority leader, sounds like great fun. For example, when you hang out with him, you can gossip about Britney Spears, do yoga, ask him questions about being Mormon, have a boxing match, and call each other on the phone just to say, I love you. I especially like the part about him and Chuck Schumer "whacking each other like kids." Now that I've given most of the profile away, you should read it. Or you can, like, totally check out his blog.
Defective Yeti is reading Moby Dick, a novel that doesn't sound like, ahem, smooth sailing. But he's also very funny: "Today Bush attended a a study group; next week he'll be going to Vietnam. Maybe he's having a midlife crisis or something, and frantically trying to do all those things he didn't do as a youth." Zing! Made me laugh. And say "zing!" outloud, so that you could tell it was italicized.
I've found that I've been looking for epiphanies in all the wrong places. All you have to do is take the 6 to Park and 23rd and walk a couple blocks and BAM! Epiphany! I've now twice just spelled that word of illumination with two ph's. Yeah, Ephiph and Tiff and Brit, and like, Skylar and Dylan, we're like totally going to the mall now, 'kay Mom?
Do kids hang out at the mall still? I don't even know. I mean, there's still nowhere else to hang out in suburbia. I mean, that is the definition of suburbia, "nowhere cool to hang out, really."
Then there's this excerpt by Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune from How I Learned to Cook...", a collection of anecdotes from zillions of cheffy chefs. (I like the colors of the cover. Classy!) A woman! who's a chef! who writes! Bourdain likes her a lot, I know, and she's supposed to be coming out with a book soon. I'm supposed to be eating at her restaurant soon. Epiph told me on her way to the mall. (Prune is one of those places I've always really wanted to go to but never have. Because I'm po'. And now I live in the wilds of suburbia. See above.)
Sober Cat Power sounds like she'd be fun to talk to too. Errr. She'd be someone with whom it would be fun to talk. Or as she says, "Oh rarararar."
I haven't had much time to delve into new music lately...been listening to my ladies instead. Lots of Cat and Regina and Billie and Neko along with some Portuguese and Brazilian sorts of stuff. Oh and these Swedish fellows. Any recs? Point the way. Light the light. Take the 6 train.
Posted by janet at 12:16 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2006
to sleep, perchance to dream, but not in that death way
NYT Magazine profiles Michel Gondry, who almost doesn't sound real. My eyes might turn to goggley hearts, after reading this and of course with the whole lovelyquirky Eternal Sunshine etc. etc.. I wonder if he gets tiring in person though? Who knows. Dream a little dream. etc. etc. I don't know why I'm talking like this.
Anyways, I can't wait for his new movie, The Science of Sleep. Sounds right up my snoozy alley, no?
Posted by janet at 3:21 PM | Comments (1)
August 8, 2006
the personal and the political
So Anthony Bourdain is home safe. Perhaps this is only news of note to certain kinds of food-lovers and tv-watchers out there. Because who cares about people you don't know? What is larger news than Bourdain's actual return (as wonderful as that is) is his reach as a public figure.
Here is this man dubbed celebrity chef who has turned into public world traveller, a human medium bringing not only the world of food but the world itself to us at home, so that we may get a taste of the possibilities. When he tells a personal story of being stuck in Beirut while shooting a No Reservations episode and finally getting safely back States-side, people sit up and pay attention in a way that they wouldn't to their evening news and newspapers. He brings it home, especially in this great article for Salon, Watching Beirut Die, giving us a taste of the tragedy of shut down possibilities. It's an example of some of Bourdain's best writing, which comes with the depth of perspective. He is waiting to be evacuated but knows that there are people with far scarier concerns, far less comfortable conditions. He knows that, as Americans, "In the end we are among the lucky ones. The privileged, the fortunate, the relatively untouched." They get to leave. To go home.
Out of sight, out of mind: I mean, it's nothing new (hello, chaos in all the world, genocide, wars, poverty, natural disasters, disease, death and doom, but really, how should I cut my hair? and where is my life going? and can you believe what happened on Project Runway today?). There's the news, and there's your life. How do the twain meet?
By the by, Mazen Kerbaj's blog, Kerblog, has his amazing drawings about daily life and Beirut. Check it out.
Posted by janet at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
what's it worth
The Post hosts an online discussion with David Makovsky, director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and its readers about the latest developments in Lebanon and Israel.
Posted by janet at 3:03 PM | Comments (1)
July 12, 2006
maximum city, maximum heart
Some moving accounts of and reactions to the Mumbai train bombings, the first of which made me sort of emotional reading on the subway this morning. Subways are not made for emotion.
On India's indomitable spirit: India's Indestructible Heart.
Dilip D'Souza's beautiful, heartbreaking words on the aftermath at Salon
The first-class compartment in the middle of the train looks like someone buckled down to work on it with a blunt can opener. It's just twisted metal now, but I flinch on merely looking at it. Suketu Mehta wrote once, famously, of hands unfurling like petals from a packed Bombay train compartment, reaching out to whisk just that one more commuter onboard. From this train stopped and dark in Mahim, the metal of the train itself unfurls like grotesque petals.I see no hands.
and also at Salon, New Yorker Manish Vij writes about why he loves riding the Mumbai trains.
(salon links via sepiamutiny)
Posted by janet at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2006
linkstime - growing up, journeys, books
Peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time... woo-ahhhhh. Nooo, it's LINKSTIME, and it's so much neater than dealing with sausage casing. Ho ho ho.
I am kind of excited about two upcoming movies, though they're not out for awhile yet. The movie adaptation for Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, directed by who else but Mira Nair, and starring Kal Penn (whee!). I remember not being too crazy about the book but I think it might make a good movie and the trailer made me realize I should read the book again and reassess, especially with my swiss cheese memory. Mmmm. Good in sandwiches. That's out this fall and here's Kal's (we're on a first name basis) admittedly not very interesting blog for the movie, though I didn't look at the video clips. The comments on the most recent entry are funny, as they are direct messages to him. Like all forms of, I think you're the bestest actor...e-mail me!!!!
The other movie is an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel/memoir of growing up in Iran, Persepolis, which comes out in 2007. Exciting!!!!
Youngna has an interesting photojournal of her time in the Dominican Republic. I spent a few weeks in the DR in my youth and this is where I developed my severe dislike of swarming ants (because otherwise, they're just so lovable and cuddly) and tasted my first sugarcane.
Here, you can find two tracks off the upcoming solo effort by Thom Yorke, The Eraser. And I'm not really feeling it. Much like ants, Thom Yorke is not exactly lovable and cuddly. But he does dance pretty crazy. Yorke 1. Ants 0.
The NYT says unpaid internships are evil! Maybe they are! It's like those things you find on Idealist where you PAY to VOLUNTEER. What's with that? And I didn't learn anything much from my internships (and they were paid, albeit small amounts) except expert fluency with office equipment and how to check e-mail sneakily. Surely this is why I (my parents) paid lots of money for college. It probably depends on the organization which you're interning for (there's isn't no grammar here), but bluh, what's the point. Get out there and do something, yeah? I should have followed my future advice.
And finally, popmatters responds to the stupid NYT best works of fiction in the last 25 years, by calling out the oldwhitemen and discounting the win by Toni Morrison's Beloved as the best work as compensation for oldwhitemen guilt. The writer asks, where are the minority, the fringe (you know, everybody else besides oldwhitemen)? and suggests they look to the future of the word in "the Alexies, the Chabons, the Wallaces." So, Toni Morrison's work is unable to stand on its own, simply because she is both black and a woman (GASP)? I mean, the popmatters guy, and he is a guy, is making, what seems to me, an obvious point about the wonderbread nature of the booklist, but then undercuts it by making both an unclear argument about Morrison (she's doomed because she's on the inside, she's doomed because she's regarded as an outsider) and a suggestion for young white men (plus one native american man in Alexie, whom I've never come across before?) as a solution. I don't buy that Morrison is regarded as an outsider in literature; I buy that there is scant consciousness about women or minority work on the general/popular radar, especially originating from the U.S., besides chick-lit and perhaps the This American Life/NPR crowd, David Sedaris/Sarah Vowell/David Rakoff (and even then).
Bookslut is compiling an alternate list. Make your suggestions for "The Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years That Will Not Bore the Living Shit out of You" at (har har, so funny) whiteliberalguilt@gmail.com. Of course, I can't come up with anything. Typical cheesebrain. Typical. Can you?
Posted by janet at 11:16 AM | Comments (4)
July 8, 2005
Onward...
Londoners go back to work.
Slate's David Plotz sends a dispatch from London. Starbucks is open. He wonders, "Many British Muslims here belong to distinct, unassimilated communities. As an American, I find aspects of that unsettling: There are lots of women clad in burqas and lots of men with long beards and skullcaps."
British author Ian McEwan asks "How could we have forgotten that this was always going to happen?" and "...we will face again that deal we must constantly make and remake with the state - how much power must we grant Leviathan, how much freedom will we be asked to trade for our security?"
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May 10, 2005
sausage
LINKS active.
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April 1, 2005
put out the guest towels
My first, and probably only, guest-blogging stint at foxes, swimming in the self-doubt and ramblings you've come to tolerate.
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March 17, 2005
world briefing
Somebody had fun writing this one. (via NYT)
GERMANY: BOMB SCARE DEFLATED A parcel that vibrated and made noises set off concern at a post office in eastern Chemnitz among workers who thought it might be a bomb. The police were called, and when they brought the parcel's sender to the scene, he disclosed that the cause for alarm was a vibrating, inflatable erotic doll that he was returning because it kept turning itself on. Calm was restored after the sender removed the batteries in the life-size doll. (Reuters)
Hhahahha. Cuz it kept turning itself on. eeheeeheeee.
Posted by janet at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2005
bloggy frog blobs
the 2005 bloggies are out.
I like, meaning I dislike, how in every nyt article that mentions blogs, they have to clarify, "weblog."
What are some of your fave blogs?
EDIT:
My new favorite blog, cuz it talks so much about chocolate!!!!! Has a pretty spiffy design too. Good enough to eat, of course, not in that creepy red riding hood human eating wolf way.
lovescool
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March 11, 2005
i'm just mad about dunkin donuts and saffron
My excellent emu of edison pals didn't miss this scrumptious tidbit now did they?
Mumbai to Midtown, Chaat Hits the Spot
No article about Indian-things-in-general-around-here is complete without mention of... you guessed it! Oak Tree Road! ...Oak Tree Road serves a knowledgeable clientele and has the best-quality sweets and chaats in the region: all the major manufacturers have shops there, and even amateurs like Shalimar and the Galaxy food court serve lively chaats with startlingly fresh flavors...
And no discussion about these here parts and neck o' the woods is complete with a little D&D. No, not dungeons & dragons, you nerd. Slate talks about their campaign to elegant-ize it up to offset that warm welcoming color palette that feels like home. Dunno 'bout you but D&D doesn't need to yearn to be like the behemoth S and do preposterous things like lattes when they're in the burbs... cuz there's just nowhere... else... to ... go.
Posted by janet at 10:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
partners in mime
You say peanut butter, I say jelly. Green eggs go hand in yolky over easy hand with ham. Tequila runs around with limes. And salt comes tumbling after. But to my surprise, I must add a new pair to my shopping list. Korea and Qatar. I can sense your quizzical looks, my friends, and let me glare at you superciliously, though in truth, superficially .. cuz I had to look it up. Geography Bee, I am not, despite the buzz.
Do not fear, as you might have when you looked at that cloudy, romantic image and thought I turned into a xanga girl with many cellphone accessories. I stumbled upon this article from the Korea Times - "Korean Soap Opera Boosts Relations With Qatar." I admit, you could tell from the wildness of my eyes that I was a little bewildered, a little lost.
Apparently, a Korean soap opera, "Hotelier," will be shown in Qatar, and help "enhance relations" between the two countries. S. Korean satellite channel also has begun Arabic programming. Cultural exchange. Student exchanges. And... it's the economy, stupid.
Still, this all rung a bell. A tinny one, that sounded like a particular Korean soap opera very popular in the Philippines, according to my sources. Am I Daniel Okrent? I don't need no public editor! My source knows who she is. So I did some sleuthing, otherwise known as googling and my gumshoe fingers report: This soap opera must star a certain Bae Yong Joon. I like the quotes in this article reporting on his visit to Japan.
"I’m so happy—I could die now with no regrets!" sobbed Noriko Fukawa, 48, after catching a glimpse of the star.
“He is so handsome,” she said, wearing a T-shirt with Bae’s photo printed on her chest, holding his poster cut in the shape of a heart. “He looks so pure, graceful and gentle. No Japanese men are like him.”
Ouch! Right now, I would want a photo of Gumby printed on my chest. His rubbery image makes me sleep more secure at night.
Despite being of the Korean roots, I have no knowledge whatsover about this Asian phenomenon. No, I'm not talking about Michelle Kwan. (Oooh. I had to struggle to think of one. Isn't that bad news??? Errr. Lucy Liu? I mean, she does get a lot of cameos...) So I turned to this google find, which I felt would answer all my lingering questions, entitled: Why is Winter Sonata a Big Hit in Asia?. Looked promising but then I got lost at the plot twisty description with all those names and because the author writes without the least bit of self-loathing or dark humor. Instead it's all about "puppy love" and "love story" and all that, though I did perk up at "drinking stupor."
So my questions remain unanswered. Luckily, I can watch episodes and work on my mother tongue. Probably while being yelled at by my mother.
The stills actually do look quite nice and perhaps the series is good, despite my ribbing. When I saw the title, I thought for a fleeting moment that there might be some connection to Bergman's Autumn Sonata, which I think is a better season-title match. There just is not as much to sonata about in the winter. Perhaps the connection between Korea and Sweden will be made clearer another day. Probably in a short news report about how people are tragically trampled during the opening of a new IKEA store.
Posted by janet at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
we all live in our lucky tangerine
When I was young and bright-eyed, I liked being handy with the pretty paper and scissors and glue. And I confess, I was a font-nerd. Those days have faded away, through years of sunlight and the grit of mundanity. Yet here I am, not driven to actually create things, cuz that would require work or thought, but still staring wistfully at greeting cards at stationers, the lovely papers in paperies, even the nice little curliques that I found quite pleasing to the eye - if a little surprising - during the nba allstar game. You can always catch my heart on a nail, snag my aestethic tooth with some curliques.
So it's no surprise that I really love the general aesthetics of lucky tangerine design. Simple, elegant, whimsical. (If that were an acrostic, that would spell out S-E-W. Ah, you don't miss much, gentle reader.) Lucky Tangerine has designed menus and other such things for Lassi, which are quite lovely and you can see those things and other examples of projects on their site.
Lucky Tangerine also a) sounds like it could be a code name for spies, but for a rookie. b) can insouciantly be inserted into the lyric line - we all live in our yellow submarine. but then so can "purple soup tureen" and probably a number of other things.
As we're on the subject of purple soup tureens and opera pork and beans, here's the graphics answer to mp3 blogs -- font blogs!! fontleech --- (via LHB)
Plus, the homes of many many awesome and gorgeous tiles/backgrounds, citrus moon and squidfingers
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February 23, 2005
the style beat, otherwise known as bulgogi
Courtesy of a fellow 'sistah', (bulgogi sistah that is), I bring you this juicy marinated beefy tidbit of cultural relevance:
S. Korean homeless best dressed!!
Sniff. I think I detect a twinge of motherland pride. Best Dressed! We're right next to best smile and most likely to succeed!
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February 15, 2005
by the by
There's nothin' wrong with a little love and a little funeral. That's life.
Pitchfork interviews Win of Arcade Fire, my lovely hypester canadian-some chickadees.
Posted by janet at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2005
blue monday
([W + (D-d)] x TQ)/(M X NA)
And I'm a bus heading towards chicago with a tuppence a pound, helps the medicine go down.
Posted by janet at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2004
liberal education
Vocab: A liberal application of butter on my bread. Mmmmm. Butter.
Why does, oh I don't know, learning things mean you are trading off for 'marketable' skills? Why can't the media ever pick a young person that is more interesting and intelligent than a piece of hair?
On liberal education -- what it means, do the students get it (apparently not. They answer "the classes are small" and "the professors care."), what's the point, etc. etc. Ok yeah, so I agree that it's quite a broad term that does little to describe its aims. And I'm not sure who determines these aims. But I take it to mean something like an education where one learns to how to think more coherently, to be more able to engage different perspectives and arenas into some sorts of hopefully meaningful or searching judgments and questions. You learn how to learn. And that's probably roundabout and I've disproven myself by being about as intelligent as a piece of hair. But liberal arts sure doesn't mean that you're being "creative" in some typically arty smarty sense of the word.
Actually, I'm getting kind of angry reading this. A student explains:
"But at a certain point," she says, "it becomes less and less about learning and more about resume-building." Why? Well, Maynard replied, people don't want to graduate and end up as a Starbucks barrista. After she gets her degree in literary studies, she wants to pursue a career in branding.
What the fuck is branding? Branding cattle? Determining what's hot and what's not? And fuck, maybe you might learn something from being a barrista than some kiss-ass who isn't interested in the world around them and can't say that they are passionate about what they do. How the hell can you be passionate about branding. I love that Nike swoosh. It keeps me going when I'm down and out and thinking of slitting a wrist.
Rant finis.
Ok. Angrier than I thought. To each his own and all different kinds of people and their money to make world go round and other such platitudes. Sorrryyyyyyy *giggles*
Edit: All about branding
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November 15, 2004
i can't stop
YOUNGNA is cool and in caps. Does she live in microphones to take pics as close-up as these? She photo-chronicles the Arcade Fire/Cornell crazy goodness. Check out her other photo-chronicling.
So cute!!
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November 4, 2004
fox vs nyt
Friedman's editorial today says things better than I do.
"We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is."
Two Nations Under God
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Well, as Grandma used to say, at least I still have my health. ...
I often begin writing columns by interviewing myself. I did that yesterday, asking myself this: Why didn't I feel totally depressed after George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, or even when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore? Why did I wake up feeling deeply troubled yesterday?
Answer: whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.
Is it a country that does not intrude into people's sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn't trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us - instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?
At one level this election was about nothing. None of the real problems facing the nation were really discussed. But at another level, without warning, it actually became about everything. Partly that happened because so many Supreme Court seats are at stake, and partly because Mr. Bush's base is pushing so hard to legislate social issues and extend the boundaries of religion that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president. I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out.
The election results reaffirmed that. Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.
This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way.
My problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad. I respect that moral energy, but wish that Democrats could find a way to tap it for different ends.
"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."
I've always had a simple motto when it comes to politics: Never put yourself in a position where your party wins only if your country fails. This column will absolutely not be rooting for George Bush to fail so Democrats can make a comeback. If the Democrats make a comeback, it must not be by default, because the country has lapsed into a total mess, but because they have nominated a candidate who can win with a positive message that connects with America's heartland.
Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk that Mr. Bush has a mandate for his far right policies. Yes, he does have a mandate, but he also has a date - a date with history. If Mr. Bush can salvage the war in Iraq, forge a solution for dealing with our entitlements crisis - which can be done only with a bipartisan approach and a more sane fiscal policy - upgrade America's competitiveness, prevent Iran from going nuclear and produce a solution for our energy crunch, history will say that he used his mandate to lead to great effect. If he pushes for still more tax cuts and fails to solve our real problems, his date with history will be a very unpleasant one - no matter what mandate he has.
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October 30, 2004
polyscims
And what happens when Kerry and W. become Sims characters? See for yourself!. Lots of drama, not to mention making out, to be had, that's for sure!! (via leah.)
Count those electoral votes while you can like clipping coupons. No.
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October 20, 2004
vote or die
Vote or Die! ... Perhaps the worst slogan ever.
Better idea:
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pretend that nothing ever happened
It's that British cold and cruel rainy weather that produces that stiff upper lip don't say boo to a goose devil may care attitude that I am utterly lacking right now. I just want to turn around three times like a very cute kitten and with the light pitter patter of raindrops on roses, nestle to sleep. Nestle, I tell you. Don't put that long E on the end of that and make this cosy image into a chocolate. I'm not in control of your weight. You are. (Sorry, I caught some of that show, "The Biggest Loser," or something inane like that before Scrubs. They lose weight to win. And goddammit, those Law & Order thingies, no matter what kind, can suck you in if you start watching.)
I'm feeling like a duskily blue. Also I'm listening to Cat Power and Elliot Smith. A correlation of sorts like a rolling moss gathers no stones. Today is messy metaphors, adages askew, and idiotic idioms for dessert.
"It's true I do imbue my blue unto myself I make it bitter." One of my fave Fiona Apple lyrics. Man, she's way overdue.
What was I even updating about anyways? I mean, what can YOU do for ME? (Hold on, can I call you back? I'm singing the Anthem of the Selfish.) You can't bake me york-brownies, you can't make the work week 20 hours, you can't put together two index fingers and stop time so I can take 24 hour nap, can you? (Gah. What was that show called??) Nestleeeeeeeeeeee
Oh yes. One thing I did do yesterday was watch Tarnation with YP. It was kinda intense and made me feel like I have an utterly noneventful life and grateful at that, to be a wallflower, never having had joints laced with pcp and dipped in formaldehyde. Now, there's your antidrug. Otherwise, too tired (imbuing blue, making it bitter, etc) to comment. trailer
Well, also I kept thinking that the filmmaker's last name Caouette had an equivalent in French, like cashew. But no. Cashew in French is anarcadier. Couette, however, does mean "feather bed."
Here's a random EITS track from how strange, innocence (2000):
Remember Me as a Time of Day
I Heart them.
And welcome back the sassy Miss Modern Age back to the bloggy fray. Years, years ago, in early 2002, I discovered this newfangled notion of music blogging chez elle and marvelled at the verdana words.
Look at how many words I can get in when I'm trying to procastinate! Such a long entry! So little substance!
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October 17, 2004
korean rage
Did somebody say, "Korean rage"??? Is my mom around here with her illusions of her daughter's new professional degree and many figured salary and doctor husband prospects? Nooooo.
Get out your markers and gold stars and make an X on the vast wasteland in Asian (American) Actor-land. (Hey that includes Canada too.) Sandra Oh stars in the movie, Sideways, which is a wine buddy movie? Something like that. I remember seeing the preview for this before Garden State and getting confused. Who's that lady? She looks Asian. Oh? That's Korean! What's going on here? Was Lucy Liu too busy? I'm soooo confused. Do you sing K-pop songs?? *kekeke*
NYT talks talks to Sandra Oh, sprinkler of expletives. Yayyy expletives! It's interesting that she claims that the roles are better on TV, which now that I think about it, could make sense. There's the whole time factor, which gives a character more time to flesh out, rather than play to an ethnic or racial stereotype. Still, it seems pretty bleak either way. (Hey, Zach, where are all the Asian doctor/interns on Scrubs??? Even ER has Ming-Na..... Is that a good thing? ponder ponder)
Oh, on Margaret Cho: "Koreans didn't support her because of their own [expletive] bias, what's the word, something -ist, not racist but just that [expletive] where they only want Asian stars who look like [expletive] Asian kewpie dolls."
Yeah! Fuck kewpie! What the hell is kewpie?? Kidding. Just a word I think is kinda dated and only now used disparagingly. Actually, maybe it's code for... Korean Power!!! Wowowowowowow (korean power sound effects) stars shooting ***** Except... what happened to M-Cho? Why so skinny? Nobody really knows. Ok, I don't really care that much, despite previous mentions of her in cette site, but recent pics of her are jarring.
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September 22, 2004
i wish i had a sibling
Toothpaste for Dinner has a sister!!!
Interview with Drew Toothpaste. Or would it be Drew Dinner?
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September 7, 2004
oh, craig
Craig(slist), I can't get over you.
Sure, people suck. Especially when can't spell and don't know what commas are for. But Craig, you sound so harmless and honest. I can't stay mad at you. Now I have to go back and check apartment listings for the 20th time today and pretend it's my 5th. Oh my god...
I'm a craisglist-o-holic.
And I need help.
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September 6, 2004
Not an original thought in me
Well, there goes my stab at creation... this guy has beat me to the phrase "escaping words" by a couple of years in poem form. Now, he may be a sweater-vest? wearing angry writing snowman, but I'm just ... no, I'm not going to try to compete with that. (limply) I just don't have it in me. His poem is "about the compulsion to write." What I thought previously and naively a unique turn of word usage is supposed to mean that my words here have escaped from my brain filter. Therefore, there is no guarantee that they will be any good. Or that I am trying to catch the ones that are good and meaningful. Less so the latter situation. See, I'm not making sense already.
Dammit, why can't I just be Bjrk and be all inventive and quirky-insane and an Icelandic pixie? I'm sure that would solve all my problems. I would say a bunch of words and it would be lauded poetry and song. And I'd have an umlaut in my name. Jnet. Umlauts. The Quicker Fixer Upper.
Hhhhrrmmmm. So what's up?
Oh, not much.
That's cool.
(pause)
Well, I gotta go.
Ok, bye.
Sorry, I was just practicing being inane. One small letter away from inne. Hehehehehe. Too much fun.
Sighs. Well, it was nice being able to sleep in. Here's some interesting, not-very-enlightening reading...
Ehee ... Literary doping makes me feel better about my unproductivity in regards to writing. "I would explain my high productivity by my desperate loneliness and my pathetic sadness that causes me work to extreme lengths to fill the hollow void that is my life."
I just use TV and sleep and cookies. Cookies are good for the void.
Okay, liberals. The answer to winning elections is the opposite of eating babies!!!! Now go procreate!
The field of philosophy is more like soft-rock'n'roll, then regular. Is popular philosophy possible? I'm kinda curious about these books that are mentioned. Not that I've gotten through and taken in any "primary text" philosophy of late besides some Plato and that was during school ... maybe I'll check some of those "bite size" phil books out after/if I finish Brothers Karamazov. Or maybe, like, I'll do my nails. *giggles*
Saved the best for last!!!! Cello is the new punk!!!
This article has shown me how the addition of "cello" to any word usually will make it funny. "cello revolution" What is "straight cello rock"?? The whole idea just doesn't sound very good. Like cellos should. But who knows.
Jump, Little Children is one of my fav bands w/ a cello, though cello-rock it is not. I haven't been keeping up with them lately. I hope they don't suck.
Whoooo, this was a long entry. Even though it was all links. The highlight of my weekend was hearing "Bohemian Rhapsody" as piano-muzak at Nordstroms. Man, that guy played well...I'll remember him forever. Rock on!
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August 28, 2004
you roxor
Romeo & Juliet in online-speak. SSOooooo funny. Ur gonna laff so much, omg! LOLOLOLOLLLLL let's go clubbing! (just click no when it asks you to install stuff)
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July 20, 2004
smart words
Whilst I was grousing over lack of ipod and looking up the story via the Duke website, my sleepy eyes perked up at the mention of "blog watch." Nothin' like a new blog to give new meaning to life! Well, it just so happens that the blog belongs to a former political science professor of mine, whom I still hold in high regard. Like, totally check it out man... He's smart, makes you not only think, but laugh as well (le gasp!).
Read what Killer Grease Mungowitz has to say.
His thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11
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June 15, 2004
talk pretty
Interview with David Sedaris via largehearted boy.
"I've never seen the Internet. I don't have email. I just enjoy lying on the couch and reading a magazine. When people say, "You should visit my Web page," I'm always perplexed by it. Why? What do you do there?"
Good question.
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June 14, 2004
and the livin is easy
Aaaaa. Days til work starts dwindling away. Dwindle Dwindle.
I don't know where my mother gets all her information. Clearly she is hanging out with the wrong sort, whose children are all on their way to being doctors and lawyers and getting free laptops from work. I, on the other hand, will nap in about half an hour and maybe dream about an ibook that I can't afford. Or maybe it will be one of those action/adventure type dreams where I save the world.
I've never done Restaurant Week where shmancy restaurants have affordable prix fixes. I think it's about time I made my way there for a tastey taste. June 21-25 & June 28-July 2.
Zadie Smith has a piece in The New Yorker about paradise vacation. Nice and sarcastic, the way I like it.
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May 16, 2004
linkstastic!
I tried to do something with "sexcellent" and "links" but none of the combinations had that sexy and excellent ring to it. Sexcellinks? That sounds dumb.
Anyway, here's a list of links to peruse at your leisure. You can thank my utterly in-active day, spent in bed, under meds, and in front of the computer. I can hear my butt growing fat. I'm really gonna start running. Really. Like, in a couple of days.
Read up on Rufus Wainwright. Apparently, "arrogance and Elton John" saves lives.
Julia Stiles can act?? in a David Mamet play no less! Well shiver me timbers..
For some reason, journalists cannot refrain from punning on the Pixies. I guess they have to be entertained somehow. On the absence of reason for Pixies reunion: Piqued by the Pixies .
I know I do go on about how I envy the ridiculously charming and witty and loving mother-daughter relationship on Gilmore Girls, but this is too much. Cool parents??? Creeps me out, man. What's going to happen to art and literature?!?! The teenage angst years are integral fodder!! What is this well-adjusted stuff. Notice how they didn't mention immigrant/minority families and the generational divides. I'll just thank my mum & da for that. Now I have creative material fodder. Mwahahahahah. (Did I mention I really need to move out of the house or go nuts??)
American Girl Cafe is, like, the hottest place in town for girls and dolls (no mention of guys and their transformers and powerwheels). For $23 a person, you can get a pretty fine-sounding multi-course meal for your little one and her American Girl doll. (They make food for the doll. What happens to that? Is it just smushed over their faces? Can I have some? For free?) I used to want one of these dolls when I was little, cuz they had the coolest accessories and furniture. Furniture!! Everything is cooler when it's small-size! This is also the 2nd article I've read today that included the term "tween." That just drives me to drink.
The American Girl dolls are all about diversity. But maybe they're not doing too good a job? "There are two Asian dolls that are supposed to look like us," said Megan Yee, 14, of Scarsdale, N.Y., gesturing to herself and her sister, Erin, 12. "But they don't." It's a tough lesson girls, but that's just life now isn't it?
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May 13, 2004
You've been lied to
So at Field Day last year, with Underworld up on stage, pelvic thrusts and all, there was this one song where I thought he was saying "You've been lied to" over and over and over and over again. But it turns out that those aren't the words.
But that doesn't matter. I just keep on thinking of those words as scary-continuous-techno soundtrack to the current administration.
Here's a NYT Op-Ed piece about the Abu-Ghraib "trophy shots" explaining the thumbs-up at misery by the "Other" factor.
"It is conceivable that such events might have occurred in a war in which the enemy looked like us certainly, there are Americans to whom all foreigners are irredeemably Other. Still, it is striking how, in wartime, a fundamental lack of respect for the enemy's body becomes an issue only when the enemy is perceived as being of another race... Treating those we deem our equals as game animals, however, has been out of fashion for quite a few centuries."
Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd also have nice word-work today.
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April 16, 2004
social butterfly
You know, I was thinking the other day, that this world needed more social networking available online. Especially in college. Now, thanks to thefacebook I can visualize my social net and also network with other smart intelligent pretty people.
Ah, yes, the popular way to describe it is friendster for college, namely Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, MIT, BU, NYU, Berkeley, Brown, Princeton, Duke, Georgetown, and UVa. This will really facilitate taking over the world! Yes, shed your Abercombie garments and let's go make a difference!!!! Oh wait, what do people in California wear? My bad! Personally, I make my own clothes. Let's compare how we say the same thing in different ways in each geographical section of the country! We are so different and yet so the same!!!!
Damn curiosity!!! Now my coolness factor has been lowered because I signed up and what's cooler than being cool with a social network as vast as the seven seas is not having one at all!! (oh my, the way we cope). Oh well. I have some feeling that this college tidbit will have a shorter life than the frozen yogurt fascination. I will now continue my snobbish ways and go listen to some music by a band that you haven't heard of before.
Mmmm. Nonsense. It's refreshing isn't it? Especially after all that reality tv you just watched.
Here's something from Duke that I'm proud of!! Whoa! The Fine by Me project started last year at Duke, producing t-shirts that say: "gay? fine by me" and getting people around campus to wear them. So simple and yet an immediately obvious show of support and pride. Read the FAQ section for details on how this started and how to start a campaign of at your own school/community. Buy a shirt for yourself and your friends. In fact, go ahead and use thefacebook.
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April 13, 2004
cold marble slab
Praise praise praise from the nytimes about the redevelopment of lincoln center... a place which I can't seem to escape. Once they get you in their grips with their "music program" for "precollege" and "juilliard" they never let gooooooo. Snob snob snob. Anyhoo, they're all praisey because the design does this meshing between the past and future. "modern vintage" and "reflexive modernity" That's *gumsnap* like .total.fashion.Like, cool.
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April 6, 2004
Jersey Girl
Oh, the darling suburbs, which is not spelled like rhubarb. I know they don't even sound alike at the end. Burb. Barb. Tomayto Tomahto. If you, and verily likely you are, are from these charming regions of America, you best read Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia from this Sunday's NYT Magazine.
Oh David Brooks, you ring far too many bells. Are they charming and cheery like holiday jingle bells? I think they are a little more edgy. Like the insane going kind.
I digress. Brooks writes about the US of A turning into one big WalMart parking lot. Move to Canada while you can!! Har Har. The suburbs, themselves, are starting to have suburbs ... or "exurbs" .. spraaaaaawwwwwwl stretching far as the eye can see, like a nationwide taffy. From sea to shining sea! Terrible for your teeth, though.
The article is pretty interesting and funny at times, as it's almost impossible to talk about the suburbs without some pokes and making fun. I especially like the bit on the "crunchy" suburb and Trader Joe's (Hello Westfield, NJ!!) "where all the cashiers look as if they are on loan from Amnesty International and all the snack food is especially designed for kids who come home from school screaming, 'Mom, I want a snack that will prevent colorectal cancer!' " Hey man, they have $3 wine. What's not to love?
Anyways, I find it pretty interesting that Brooks has sort of sectioned off different kinds of suburbs into "cultural" (not necessarily ethnic/racial) areas. Maybe it's me, but in NJ, we seem to be all smooshed together. Trader Joes, Rainforest Cafes, golf courses, Behemoth-Mart, and most importantly, Asian food marts and other such 'diversity' delights all pretty much in each other's backyards. And maybe Brooks talks about how we all tend to create these 'types' and stick to our own kind, (I like a nice chocolate fondue myself) creating segments. And maybe I have this sheen-of-optimism/naivete about my hometown, but I hope all these segments in places that aren't smooshy get more mashed together, like potatoes (that's good ol' American fare!), not to lose individuality, identity, yadda yadda, but so that people have accessibility to all sorts of "cultural zones". So that Taiwanese girls and Ukrainian boys can hold hands peacefully in their soccer fields and malls and sing along to the current American Idol "hit".
One in nine people in America are born in a foreign city. Pretty cool eh? Don't forget the American Dream. This funny concept, a non-reality that so often has to do with materiality, might be the only glue that holds us together as an American people. And yes, don't forget American Idol!!! (I'm sleepy, I put myself on repeat).
Brooks definitely starts to put on his Super-Rosy glasses and gets too happy-lala-optimistic towards the end of the article, but I think it's generally a good read.
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April 4, 2004
<3
Just 3 links. Because I stayed in tonight and started reading me some nyt. hyuk hyuk...
One, because I heart Conan .
and because I heart Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and smart movie critics . Actually, I don't understand any of the Cavell quote. You try it.
On that note, this brain and memory stuff is really intriguing! Now I can understand people who like neuro. Like Wan who wants to have ten thouuusand of its babies. Or is that orgo now? I can't keep track; don't be a player.
Do you know how much stuff I have backlogged in my brain (written on a post-it)?! 3 plays and some more cafe delights.
I will never use "hyuk hyuk" ever again. And let me go on the record, I don't like saying "I heart ..." It usually makes me puke. I guess today it didn't. And I'm cool. Or uncool. Can't keep track.
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