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.

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

Reactor Party

Back to school. I’m sitting in the Student Union, or to those in the know—Stamp. Its raining and it might as well be Monday. For some reason all of this excites me. Having purpose and work to do in life has gotten me out of my semi-funk and revived my hopes for Late Winter.

The schedule is as follows:
Tuesday – High Middle Ages, Environmental History and American Lit. from 9:30 to 1:15. 15 minute breaks for smoking and walking.
Thursday – Repeat above but add Intellectual & Cultural Life Under Totalitarianism in the 20th Century from 2 to 4.
Friday – Lit discussion class.

I still have to get my 20th Century Culture class’ discussion scheduled (it hasn’t been yet), but other than that the timing worked out quite well, I think.

I’d like to move and I’d like to continue to earn a big paycheck but other than that I’m feeling good. I’m sure all that will change once I get my syllabi, though. Then the panic will set in.

Hooray for panic.

Also, as an aside that doesn’t matter: a guy who honestly should be a Bertrand Russell impersonator is sitting across from me. He looks about 102 years old and he has a british accent. Good ol’ Bertie. I really need to take another Philosophy course.

Listening to “The Racing Rats” by The Editors (which as a more dance-y Robert Palmer feel to its music video) and “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem. The title is a song by ShitDisco. Good song.

Push Your Head Towards The Air

I’m making over my room. It’s getting a whole new image. You see, I’ve had, essentially, the same décor since I was twelve. Which is strange since the room looks like it’s the library/den/study of an English manor, and a stuffy one at that. So, a new coat of paint, some new furniture and art work that doesn’t seem to legitimize colonialism (or possibly just Orientalism in the Said sense) will hopefully give me a fresh new outlook on… well, everything.

This endeavor means that I have been clearing out a decades worth of detritus and junk. Right now there is no art on the walls, no books on the bookcase, nothing in my desk and very little anywhere else. The more stuff I take out, though, the more cluttered I think it looks. I think once the process is under way I’ll aim for a more Zen-like feel. Minimalism, thy name is Greg.

IKEA bookcases, a new dresser and a duvet cover have already been purchased, or at least picked out and hanged down. I’m searching for a desk and a chair still. And a paint color. These things take time. Packing my life up into a dozen boxes took days…

I’m so not Zen.

What Would Wolves Do?

The Yuletide season is over. You can tell because we just took all the Christmas decorations up to the attic. It was a very secular design theme this year. A tree, nutcrackers, a few woodland elf things and some lights. I think my complete disinterest in religion is wearing off on my parents. We did go to St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C. for midnight mass (so that my parents wouldn’t feel like total lapsed Catholics). The service was beautiful. The choir and the architecture made me want to believe, which hasn’t happened in a long time. Huge spaces that make you feel small but safe are probably the best places to find God.

Beyond that the gifts were good. I got some new clothes, a few gift certificates, a couple books and this really weird stress ball that you have to see to believe. I would post a picture of it but… you know… I’m entirely inept at computer stuff. Of the wish list from a post ago, I got my 4.0 which I think may be a mistake. If it is then I hope they don’t catch it, if it isn’t: sweet! Paris is a possibility still but we don’t know yet, and while financial solvency is still distant I’m way better off after Jesus’ b-day than I was before.

New Year’s was spent in Baltimore. That was an adventure that would require an intire post in and of itself. Let’s just say that I saw women on cop cars getting their photo taken by the cop in various stages of undress, a three headed stag costume worn by a drum beating crazy person and the leftovers of a bar brawl. I love Hamden…

Work is kicking my ass but I get a little bored when I leave. I’m sure this is only because I need near-constant stimulation and working at a hedge fund provides an overload of it. School is starting back up soon. By the end of January I’ll be back to UMD and trying to balance my roles as employee, student, boyfriend, friend and son. I’m taking some cool classes but I’ll let you know about those when I’ve actually taken a few of them.

In my media reviewing I’ve been very busy. Lot’s to share. Nando lent me the Showtime series Dexter on DVD and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s about a serial killer. That alone makes for an interesting concept but they way the whole thing is done puts it on another level. The writing isn’t always amazing but its shot in Miami so there’s a lot of Michael Bay style bad-ass-lens/filter use. My favorite! I bought my dad Studio 60 and promptly stole it from him. I forgot how much I love that show. Sorkin is so good. In movie news Juno is amazing. I also got the pleasure of watching Short Circuit 2. If you don’t remember this movie its an 80’s robot flick that will blow your mind. I now understand why Nando lists it as his favorite movie of all time. Nightwatch was also quite good. I’ve been catching up on older movies lately so much of this may be news to no one.

Music has been sweet. Riot by Paramore, the Cut Off Your Hands EP, and the newest Les Savy Fav album are in heavy rotation.

That’s about it. Happy belated holidays to anyone who I haven’t already said it to.