a brief and revealing list of things i currently love

aural: Ironhorse's A Bluegrass Tribute to Modest Mouse Honestly, my favorite band covered by a bunch of Scots with banjos and moustaches. And far better diction than Issac Brock, God love his marble-mouthed soul. More Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde in particular, The Pixies, and OMG The Roots. Spring is coming and I want to dance.

mental: Just finished Time's Arrow by Martin Amiss, reading The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene, working on a paper about Hindu, gender, goddess worship and Kali. So, a lot of destruction and junk about the universe. Right now, I'm watching Wordplay and its awesome.

gastronomical: yerba tea. It's amazing.

sartorial: still tights, plus thrift store sweaters, and wearing my hair shaggy like Nico. I also gave myself some blunt-cut bangs. They're all the rage right now.

extracurricular: live music, good friends and conversation. I've been sick all week, which has limited my enjoyment of the pleasures of life, but I'm getting better.

damn dirty hippies

Hey dudes. Turn off your lights from 8-9 p.m. tonight, for Earth Hour.

Mostly, you should be turning shit off every day, but do it today especially.

Even Google blacked out — which is pretty cool.

september '75, i was 47 inches high

nostalgia videos presents!

one angry dwarf and 100 solemn faces-ben folds




it's funny how even when it's long dead, you can't stop being reminded of how it was or how it felt.

what a mess

Proving once again that it's one of the best sources for innovative political and social thought, Slate asked several of its best hawks the same question which plagues anyone who bothers to give the land of Ur more than a passing thought: How did I get Iraq wrong?

Consider in particular, Christopher Hitchens's strident declaration that he, in fact, did not get Iraq wrong. He is not claiming some holier-than-thou stance of being always opposed to the Iraq War [one which the author of this blog takes, with some pride, having endured being called "un-American" and "a Communist" for three months in high school], but rather considers the relevancy of this "anniversary" marking aggression in a region that has not been without outside influence, puppetry and gross cruelty for most of the past 20 years.

And that is what I call the Bishop Berkeley theory of Iraq, whereby if a country collapses and succumbs to trauma, and it's not our immediate fault or direct responsibility, then it doesn't count, and we are not involved. Nonetheless, the very thing that most repels people when they contemplate Iraq, which is the chaos and misery and fragmentation (and the deliberate intensification and augmentation of all this by the jihadists), invites the inescapable question: What would post-Saddam Iraq have looked like without a coalition presence?

The dearth of critical, stridently self-analytical, rational thought like this is what got us into this mess in the first place. Hitchens asks the questions, and cleverly provides no answers. At this juncture, perhaps this is the best tactic, as I or anyone else has been hard-pressed to produce a solution for Iraq that is both politically viable and resembles anything close fairness and justice.

[Another nail in the coffin for the idea of the military industrial complex and warfare in general, but I digress. My recently developed opinions of the structure of war and nuclear weapons merits a post of its own.]

For more traditionally journalistic content, The New York Times does a fair job, with excellent photography as usual. Bear in mind that most of the reporting coming out of Iraq is done by undercover Iraqis in constant fear, however.

the fabric of the cosmos

bwahahahaha. this may be the nerdiest thing I've ever laughed at [at which I have ever laughed? God that sucks]. By the way, Fenyman is the man, and Mythbusters is extra cool. But as neat as it is, I have a lot of problems with string theory.

Namely that no one can tell me why it's a good idea. That, and I don't like the concept that someday, theoretical physicists will derive an equation to explain all of what we currently hold unexplainable. I like the mystery of unanswerable questions.

Because it allows me to posit my own outrageous explanations of things. If you [whoever gets to be the authority about the nature of the universe] don't know what the real answer is, you can't discard my personal hypothesis that the Theory of Everything is based on Pure Poetry and Icelandic Rocks.

a brief and revealing list of things i currently love

What I'm feeding my brain:

aural: Vampire Weekend, [you know I'd love any band with a song about the Oxford Comma] rediscovering Okkervil River, Sufjan's Illinois in preparation for the big chi-town move. The Clash's first two albums, selected Bob Dylan tracks

mental: finishing up The Best American Non-Required Reading of 2007, considering giving Dave Eggers A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius a second go. Starting Time's Arrow by Martin Amiss this week. Post modern, temporal displacing goodness. Still haven't finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I will consider myself a vast failure if I don't conquer Joyce.

gastronomical: miracle foods — black beans, polenta, granny smith apples, spinach. don't have the cash to be eating out, but when i do, i'll let you know if i experience anything wonderful.

sartorial: all tights, all the time. thick, knit, warm tights with skirts and dresses, and boots. headbands. jackets. I love spring.

extracurricular: running, oddly enough. my ankle is a bitch, but i am enjoying pounding the pavement. St. Patty's this weekend, and generally spending time with friends who are challenging my mind.

This week's words to live by: "Employing as much distortion as possible" from an English class discussion about post-modernism as it relates to quantum mechanics. God bless a liberal arts degree.

c'mon feel the illinoise!

sup fools.

Since we last talked, I was rejected from NYU (what I deserve for arrogantly stating I've never been denied admission to a university), making Northwestern my default choice for graduate school. It's still the city, it's still an amazing program, and it has the benefit of being chock full of familiar faces, and close to this stupid little college campus I've grown to love.

but it's not new york, and every year I don't move there feels more like a failure. The goal is 25 though, so let's just keep aiming for that. it's not going anywhere.

In other news, I am 100% confident that for the rest of my life, I will fall into deep, hopeless, irreconcilable lust with incredibly tall, extremely mysterious men. It's a blessing and a curse. Unfortunately, being in the throes of wild, lustful interest just leaves me with incredibly vivid dreams that I wish were true when I wake up. Because I am nothing if not a little girl about things like this (and the majority of other matters, to be honest.)

I just realized that I am moving around the country in the same order as Sufjan Stevens albums. Let's hope life doesn't take me to Minnesota after grad school. (unless I'm working for the Utne Reader, in which case, yes please.)

Tomorrow: a list of things i'm onto lately, then no more updates for the rest of the weekend, unless St. Patty's prove to be epically interesting in some way that doesn't involve me drinking to excess.

here be anthropomorphic dragons

what's funny about this is it's only a year old, and already lacking. No cat macros and I'm pretty sure something awful and 4chan never even made the map in the first place. still high-larious.

More awesome at xkcd.com

like, no big, or anything

Dear Sarah:

Congratulations! The Admissions Committee has approved your application to Medill’s Master of Science in Journalism program. Your program of studies will begin in the Summer 2008 quarter.Orienation is tentatively scheduled for Monday, June 23, 2008. We will be holding our Open House for Admitted Students on Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, and you should be receiving an invitation to this event via email and postal mail soon.

So, you know, there's that. Their sports teams suck, and their colors are stupid, but it's a definite upgrade. Also, I have yet to be rejected from an institution of higher learning to which I've applied.

I fucking rule.

this is what blogs are for right?

chowder/soulja boy



i love the internet.