Thank you to DCist for this little reminder:
I really wish I could argue with this. Alas, the only one I could come up with was that cabbies are worse... It just doesn't have bite. We all expect taxi drivers to run us off the road. An entire state, on the other hand is something else entirely.
I sort of can't wait until gas gets too expensive to buy and I can do away with The Rabbit (my car) and consequently my Maryland license plate.
Listening to Pretty Girls Make Graves while trying to blog, talk on my cell phone and drive down 16th Street all at the same time all at the same time.
Thursday, June 12
Monday, May 12
The Inbetweens
Its been raining for too long now. On and off since Thursday I think. Why do I care about the weather? You’re right, of course. There isn’t anything I can do about it. I have no control over the decisions the weather makes. I have no way of altering the weather’s choices once they’re made. The weather is entirely intractable.
But that’s all anyone really talks about when it rains—how much they want the rain to stop, for everything to dry off and the gray days and washed out nights to go away. They feel like they’re only chance at happiness is sunshine without clouds. It isn’t that the argument is a bad one. After five days of this I want the rain to be over too.
I guess rain is just a fact of life. But unlike death with its stages of acceptance or taxes with its inevitability the rain never feels settled as a part of our lives. We never wake up one day to drizzle and say to ourselves: “Oh, it’s raining. Well it’ll stop eventually, and until then I’ll just go on.” We say stuff like “Its been raining for too long now.”
Maybe there should be a lesson in this. Maybe there should be a moral to my story. Something like without rain the sun doesn’t mean as much. Or the rain has a certain beauty too. Or that rain is how the plants grow stronger and the earth washes clean. Maybe that would be reductive and useless.
A lesson won’t help. Me telling you that you should learn to accept the rain will accomplish a grand total of nothing. The next time the sky open the both of us will glare at the clouds, hunch our shoulders and wait it out, unhappy about things that are beyond our control.
Sorry if that’s not the sort of thing that you wanted to reflect on. Sorry if you could care less about the rain. I guess I’ve just been having all these meaningless conversations with strangers lately. They all talked about the weather. They all complain about the rain. We all do. We all talk about the weather with strangers. Don’t worry though, the rain will stop soon enough and then we’ll start to grumble about the summer heat.
Sorry if this was a strange post. I’ve been in this bad mood lately and its been raining for too long now.
But that’s all anyone really talks about when it rains—how much they want the rain to stop, for everything to dry off and the gray days and washed out nights to go away. They feel like they’re only chance at happiness is sunshine without clouds. It isn’t that the argument is a bad one. After five days of this I want the rain to be over too.
I guess rain is just a fact of life. But unlike death with its stages of acceptance or taxes with its inevitability the rain never feels settled as a part of our lives. We never wake up one day to drizzle and say to ourselves: “Oh, it’s raining. Well it’ll stop eventually, and until then I’ll just go on.” We say stuff like “Its been raining for too long now.”
Maybe there should be a lesson in this. Maybe there should be a moral to my story. Something like without rain the sun doesn’t mean as much. Or the rain has a certain beauty too. Or that rain is how the plants grow stronger and the earth washes clean. Maybe that would be reductive and useless.
A lesson won’t help. Me telling you that you should learn to accept the rain will accomplish a grand total of nothing. The next time the sky open the both of us will glare at the clouds, hunch our shoulders and wait it out, unhappy about things that are beyond our control.
Sorry if that’s not the sort of thing that you wanted to reflect on. Sorry if you could care less about the rain. I guess I’ve just been having all these meaningless conversations with strangers lately. They all talked about the weather. They all complain about the rain. We all do. We all talk about the weather with strangers. Don’t worry though, the rain will stop soon enough and then we’ll start to grumble about the summer heat.
Sorry if this was a strange post. I’ve been in this bad mood lately and its been raining for too long now.
Tuesday, April 29
Ghost Under Rocks
Today is a strange day.
Today marks the anniversary both the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (or at least the beginning of its collapse) when they surrendered in World War I and the debut of Hair: The Musical. Its also the 238th anniversary of the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook. And to add to this already heady milieu this time sixteen years ago the Rodney King riots began.
Oh, and its International Dance Day.
Besides the historic element this day is strange for other reasons. It is the first time that I have posted in a long while. March was the first month I have missed doing something on the blog, and it’s almost the end of April…
Today I’ll also be inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honors society, which I don’t really want to do but need to for grad school. I have a feeling its going to be entirely an awkward experience.
It’s the week preceding my birthday, which always brings up the metallic taste of bile and the anticipation of getting stuff from people for not a lot of reason. Why can’t we pick another important date to get stuff on? For instance I’ve always been quite fond of the month September. I think I should be able to pick a day in September and have that be the day that people give me stuff for no reason… but alas I’m stuck with May 3rd, and free stuff is still free stuff.
I’ve got a presentation later this week too. Normally I’d be a lot more worried than I am right now but I can’t seem to muster the terror for failure that normally haunts my every step waiting for me to drop my guard and strike!
Anywho, that’s all really. Today is a strange day.
Today marks the anniversary both the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (or at least the beginning of its collapse) when they surrendered in World War I and the debut of Hair: The Musical. Its also the 238th anniversary of the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook. And to add to this already heady milieu this time sixteen years ago the Rodney King riots began.
Oh, and its International Dance Day.
Besides the historic element this day is strange for other reasons. It is the first time that I have posted in a long while. March was the first month I have missed doing something on the blog, and it’s almost the end of April…
Today I’ll also be inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honors society, which I don’t really want to do but need to for grad school. I have a feeling its going to be entirely an awkward experience.
It’s the week preceding my birthday, which always brings up the metallic taste of bile and the anticipation of getting stuff from people for not a lot of reason. Why can’t we pick another important date to get stuff on? For instance I’ve always been quite fond of the month September. I think I should be able to pick a day in September and have that be the day that people give me stuff for no reason… but alas I’m stuck with May 3rd, and free stuff is still free stuff.
I’ve got a presentation later this week too. Normally I’d be a lot more worried than I am right now but I can’t seem to muster the terror for failure that normally haunts my every step waiting for me to drop my guard and strike!
Anywho, that’s all really. Today is a strange day.
Friday, February 29
Purple Prose of Cairo
I am in awe of Hegel. The Phenomenology of Spirit, as disseminated by Arthur Hirsh in his book The French New Left (cause Hegel is really fucking long) has blown my mind. Elizabeth likens it to her understanding of geography. If a map of a city is a puzzle she’ll have some of the pieces and as she gets more of the pieces together there’re always one or two spots that you don’t seem to have filled. Once you find those everything suddenly makes sense. The whole picture emerges some much clearer. All the individual portions of the puzzle you have been working on suddenly make sense as a larger whole.
Hegel was my missing piece. Phenomenology, while I won’t claim to understand every nuance, has made the past two years of my academic interest suddenly come together like a fully formed map. The map is regional, not a lot of people go there, but now I feel like I can get around, explore the place I’ve been living inside my head for so long. I’m freakin’ psyched!
Enough extended metaphor.
Hegel is great but most of my readers will have little interest in my new found directional abilities (sorry, couldn’t resist). I have been starting work on a lot of school projects lately, which is why Hegel came up. The three papers I’m currently laboring over are going to be a lot of fun to write.
The first is for my class on Intellectual Life under Totalitarianism, I’ve tentatively titled it “In the Shadow of October.” Its about how the Western left dealt with Marxist-Leninism and Stalinism. Lenin and Stalin were murderous bastards, so why would these guys want to be too? The second is on the medieval kingdom of Castile. I’m not sure yet what my research question is, but I’ll figure it out. I just love the whole cultural interaction in Spain during the years that weren’t marred by massacres and religious intolerance. The last paper is on the construction of human beings relationship with nature. I’m focusing on the ways in which popular culture dealt with forest and garden and how they show Western attitudes towards the world as a whole. It should be fun.
I’m really excited about school. Sorry. I know it isn’t all that interesting, but I wanted to share.
I watched a documentary last night called American Hardcore, all about hardcore punk from 80 to 86. It was really good. There was a lot of Ian McKaye interviewing, and footage of D.C. bands from that era. Seeing the Calvert Street townhouse where Minor Threat played their first show with Bad Brains was awesome. I think I’ve walked by it before. I made me want to get my act together and finally finish that CD design I’ve been telling Mike I’d make a year ago. We’ll see.
Alright that’s all. I’ve got to wait around for the FiOS guy to come and make my house awesome. I’m going watch Chicago 10 tonight and my next post is going to be a media extravaganza. I’ve got a lot of movies and music to talk about.
Hegel was my missing piece. Phenomenology, while I won’t claim to understand every nuance, has made the past two years of my academic interest suddenly come together like a fully formed map. The map is regional, not a lot of people go there, but now I feel like I can get around, explore the place I’ve been living inside my head for so long. I’m freakin’ psyched!
Enough extended metaphor.
Hegel is great but most of my readers will have little interest in my new found directional abilities (sorry, couldn’t resist). I have been starting work on a lot of school projects lately, which is why Hegel came up. The three papers I’m currently laboring over are going to be a lot of fun to write.
The first is for my class on Intellectual Life under Totalitarianism, I’ve tentatively titled it “In the Shadow of October.” Its about how the Western left dealt with Marxist-Leninism and Stalinism. Lenin and Stalin were murderous bastards, so why would these guys want to be too? The second is on the medieval kingdom of Castile. I’m not sure yet what my research question is, but I’ll figure it out. I just love the whole cultural interaction in Spain during the years that weren’t marred by massacres and religious intolerance. The last paper is on the construction of human beings relationship with nature. I’m focusing on the ways in which popular culture dealt with forest and garden and how they show Western attitudes towards the world as a whole. It should be fun.
I’m really excited about school. Sorry. I know it isn’t all that interesting, but I wanted to share.
I watched a documentary last night called American Hardcore, all about hardcore punk from 80 to 86. It was really good. There was a lot of Ian McKaye interviewing, and footage of D.C. bands from that era. Seeing the Calvert Street townhouse where Minor Threat played their first show with Bad Brains was awesome. I think I’ve walked by it before. I made me want to get my act together and finally finish that CD design I’ve been telling Mike I’d make a year ago. We’ll see.
Alright that’s all. I’ve got to wait around for the FiOS guy to come and make my house awesome. I’m going watch Chicago 10 tonight and my next post is going to be a media extravaganza. I’ve got a lot of movies and music to talk about.
Friday, February 22
Working In Three's
Albums I can’t handle:
- Xiu Xiu – “Women As Lovers”
- Say Hi – The Wishes and the Glitch
- Vampire Weekend – “Self Titled”
Lyrics I can’t shake:
- “Northwestern girls, I swear I’m all grown up this time. At least I lie different when you look so nice.”
- “Walcott, the Bottleneck is a shit-show / Hyannisport is a ghetto / out of Cape Cod tonight”
- “I'd kill for an adventure / Just you and I, in the Curzon Bar / Dancing till we knew / So all that we've learnt disappears”
Songs I hope always to be moved by:
- Ceremony (both…)
- How Near, How Far
- Waterloo Sunset
Things I want to do:
- Start a war within my self
- Create the new Situationist International
- Get out of my skin for just a half hour
- Xiu Xiu – “Women As Lovers”
- Say Hi – The Wishes and the Glitch
- Vampire Weekend – “Self Titled”
Lyrics I can’t shake:
- “Northwestern girls, I swear I’m all grown up this time. At least I lie different when you look so nice.”
- “Walcott, the Bottleneck is a shit-show / Hyannisport is a ghetto / out of Cape Cod tonight”
- “I'd kill for an adventure / Just you and I, in the Curzon Bar / Dancing till we knew / So all that we've learnt disappears”
Songs I hope always to be moved by:
- Ceremony (both…)
- How Near, How Far
- Waterloo Sunset
Things I want to do:
- Start a war within my self
- Create the new Situationist International
- Get out of my skin for just a half hour
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