ventilation

MUSTARD

2010-07-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

I don't have everything I would like in this apartment

2009-05-30T19:17:00.001-07:00

but I did successfully use the kitchen sink plug as the bathtub plug.

---

today, while waiting for a campus bus (which never came!), someone else waiting asked me for words that rhyme with "dream."

I was tempted to suggest "obscene" and "spleen," but sensed that he was looking for "serene."

"I haven't written poetry in awhile," he said.

my headphones, they saved my life

disappointing terms of the civil marriage debate

2009-02-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

The Nytimes published "A Reconciliation on Civil Marriage" on Saturday.

When I read the article, it occurred to me that "opposite-sex couple" should not be used as an antonym of "same-sex couple."

"Opposite-sex" is value-laden and perhaps even inaccurate. Biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling, in Myths of Gender, explains, "In summarizing an account of male and female development one might just as easily highlight their similarities, their identical starting points and minor divergences..." (85). This link, an animated slide-show, demonstrates the similarity Fausto-Sterling is talking about.

Language should identify sex as a legal/medical classification. This isn't a complicated thing to do, and is in fact a more accurate representation of what sex is. "Opposite-sex couple," could be replaced by "couple with different legal/medical sexes." "Same-sex couple" could be replaced by "couple with the same legal/medical sex."

News Coverage of Nadya Suleman

2009-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Nadya Suleman's story is a social and clinical anomaly, so I understand why there has been so much news coverage surrounding her. Admittedly, I haven't watched many segments on Suleman (Democracy Now doesn't really concern itself with stories like this, thank Goodman). However, in the limited coverage I have seen, Suleman has being used as a platform for individuals who oppose food stamps and other types of social welfare to perpetuate either directly or obliquely Ronald Reagan's disgusting "welfare queen" myth. Where is the condemnation for Suleman's physician, whose use of clinical technology was unethical and unsafe?

Vivian Girls @ 1896 1/30/09

2009-02-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, named after the protagonists of Henry Darger’s epic multimedia work, In the Realms of the Unreal, have played a steady stream of shows since their founding in 2007. The group’s typical stomping grounds are small, independent (code for unlicensed) venues. Friday, January 30th, they performed at the multipurpose warehouse space 1896 in Bushwick.

“I’m not good enough to play in the dark yet,” joked bassist Kickball Kathy (Fittingly, many involved in the “Todd P” music scene sport nicknames). She angled the stage’s amateur lighting to illuminate the neck of her instrument. The moment was humbling, and Kathy’s repositioning of the lights shrank the dramatic shadows of her and her band mates to normal size on the wall behind them.

Part of the Vivian Girls’ charm is this lack of pretense. Despite the hasty praise lavished on the band by influential music bloggers, Kickball Kathy, vocalist/guitarist Cassie Ramone and drummer Ali Koehler kept Friday’s large concert intimate by chatting amicably with concertgoers who were close to the stage. After their opening song, “All the Time,” Kathy marveled into the microphone at the size of the venue, conveying the group’s excitement and astonishment about performing for such a large crowd.

The band’s playing betrayed no signs of self-consciousness, however. In fact, the Vivian Girls exploited the space’s acoustics like professionals. The cavernous venue’s natural echo added a layer to their amplifier settings, bathing the audience in reverberating, ear-splitting sound. Most Todd P venues are actually residential spaces, which means that bands perform on the good graces of the venue’s neighbors. Sometimes shows are cut short by a call to the police. However, 1896 is a legitimate commercial space and hence is sufficiently isolated to permit use of a larger sound system. The Girls were able to turn it up.

On the frigid evening, Ramone, Kathy and Koehler’s voices coalesced in warm, frothy harmonies reminiscent of the Shangri-Las or the Beach Boys. Obviously the latter group is an influence on the Vivian Girls’ sound; the band’s recent 7” is called Surfin’ Away and features a cover of Brian Wilson’s “Girl Don’t Tell Me.”

Although their harmonies were infectious like Wilson’s, the Vivian Girls did not perform pop music on Friday. With the exception of the longing sweetness of “Where Do You Run To?” the Vivian Girls set reveled in dissonance. In fact, primary vocalist Cassie Ramone seemed to relish interrupting the band’s beautiful harmonies with plucky vocal outbursts, something Wilson might not find tolerable. Like an opportunistic comic who delivers a deadpan joke after a melodramatic moment, Ramone’s pithy outburst at the close of the song “Such a Joke” added an anticlimactic flourish to her bandmates’ swooning.

Aggressive, simple, repetitious use of the snare drum by Ali Koehler was the link between Ramone’s vocal flares and the band’s larger harmonies. Heavy use of the snare by Koehler brought to mind 1960s garage groups like The Sonics. Given Vivian Girls’ affection for guitar distortion, the female-fronted group Black Tambourine, a short-lived early-90s shoegaze project, also seemed an apt comparison. Each of these bands uses metronomic drum schemes to punctuate guitar work, crafting guitar cacophony into short, punchy songs.

Pop and rock and roll elements have nascent histories. In this inherently experimental context, crude technique is acceptable and even desirable because it allows musicians to test new approaches to their medium. Perhaps the greatest testament to the enjoyable nature of the Vivian Girls’ sound is that Friday night’s show at 1896 was upbeat and fun even when Cassie Ramone’s guitar fell out of tune during the band’s final song.

Bureau of Justice Statistics on Rape and Domestic Violence in 2007

2008-12-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

So, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released its 2007 report on Criminal Victimization. To quote the site :

"Criminal Victimization, 2007

Presents estimates of rates and levels of personal and property victimization for 2007 and describes the substantial fluctuations in the survey measures of the crime rates from 2005 through 2007. These changes do not appear to be due to changes in the rate of criminal activity during this period, but rather to changes in the sample design and implementation of the survey. BJS and the Census Bureau are continuing to research the impact of the changes, and readers should focus on the comparisons of the 2005 and 2007 rates until these issues are resolved. A technical report discussing these issues is expected later in the year. The estimates are drawn from the NCVS, an ongoing survey of households that interviewed about 73,600 persons in 41,500 households, two times in 2007. The report includes data on violent crimes (rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault), property crimes (burglary, motor vehicle theft and property theft), and personal theft (pocket picking and purse snatching), and the characteristics of victims of these crimes.

Highlights include the following:

* Violent crime rates in 2007 (20.7 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older) were not significantly different from those in 2005 (21.1 per 1,000 persons).
* U.S. residents age 12 and older experienced an estimated 23 million crimes of violence and theft.
* The violent crime rate was 20.7 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older; for property crimes it was 146.5 per 1,000 households."

I know that the first paragraph describes "substantial fluctuations," but it's obvious that the Justice Department is trying to distract readers of the report. Sorry, but whose highlights are these? Adapted survey methods increased the recorded number of rapes by 25% between 2005 and 2007. That's 60,000 more rapes than were documented in 2005. Incidents of domestic violence increased 42%. These increases are definitely "significantly different," and belie the inadequacy of former methods to include rapes in rural areas, among other oversights. Human Rights Watch provides good, quick summary of the report's findings.
_______
P.S. Does anyone have more information on this? I want to know the details of Scribner's case.
_______
GREAT!

Condoleezza Rice Doublespeak from Meet the Press 12/21

2008-12-21T15:55:00.000-08:00

SEC’Y RICE: Right. Exactly. The horrible lives that the people of Darfur are living, the horrible tragedy that is unfolding there. Now, it’s true, we’ve been able to do a lot about the humanitarian situation. We’ve even been able to support getting some peacekeepers onto the ground; and where there are peacekeepers, there’s less violence. But we could’ve done so much more had there...

MR. GREGORY: Why didn’t we act unilaterally?

SEC’Y RICE: Well, because acting unilaterally in an Arab country or in a Muslim country that is that complex, that far away, really did not seem to be an option. The president considered it. He thought about it. He thought about what we could do unilaterally. But in fact, instead, we’ve tried to mobilize the international community and international opinion. And frankly, given that, just a couple of years ago at the UN, the leaders of the world stood up and said, “We have a responsibility to protect, if a government will not protect its own people.” And then we’ve had trouble getting anybody to do anything about it.

____

But when a "complex," "far away" country is called Iraq, it's a hell of a lot easier to act w/o international support. Secretary Rice, you are so lame.

2008-12-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

I was excited when I saw Frank McCourt's response to Doubt to The Daily Beast yesterday. As an eighth grader, I'd enjoyed his vivid memoirs Angela's Ashes and 'Tis.

Unfortunately, however, McCourt's column conflates sister Aloysius' accusation that Father Flynn has sexually abused a young male student with the question "Is Father Flynn gay?" A few years back,when all of the Catholic priests were being prosecuted for sexual abuse of minors, the question was not "are these men gay," it was "why have authorities within Catholic Church hidden priests' pedophilia?" I mean, Massachusetts actually changed its state law to require religious officials to report sexual abuse to police.

And today's question is: why did The Daily Best publish a column that conflates gayness with pedophilia? Maybe TDB did not want to ruffle McCourt's feathers, but his bigoted suggestion is deserving of ridicule despite his literary reputation.

2 good resources on U.S. military

2008-11-29T22:02:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now's Friday broadcast is a good thing to share with anyone who wasn't disappointed when Obama talked about continued military action in Afghanistan. The broadcast documents Congressional hearings with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former soldiers offer extremely brave and insightful statements. The group Iraq Veterans Against The War, represented by some of the soldiers on the panel, is the same group that held a peaceful protest outside the third presidential debate where one veteran was trampled by a policeman on horseback.

One of my professors assigned an article by Barbara Ehrenreich titled "Feminism's Assumptions Upended." I was grateful to have been exposed to the article, and thought I'd extend the favor.

Sanita

2008-11-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

William and I just went to see Milk. I liked multiple aspects of the film, and Sean Penn gives a characteristically powerful performance.

A list of my irreverent thoughts about the movie, labeled with +s and -s

-The film satirizes Jack Lira's depressive tendencies, and his character is underwritten. Lira is unstable, but where is the script's compassion for his circumstances? The closest Milk comes to an understanding of Lira is when Harvey explains to Emile Hirsch's character that he knows "what it's like" to come from Lira's troubled background. Until he kills himself, Lira is little more than cheaply-won comic relief--a caricature achieved through a heavy accent and a pathological obsession with Milk.

+/-I enjoyed the film's celebration of white gay men, but that's about as far as the movie goes in terms of representation. I think this is an important point--the coalition that supported Milk's candidacy was diverse. Then again, maybe I'm holding the film to an unfair standard just because it's about queer people.

+I found Van Sant's cinematographic approach intimate and evocative of visceral experience.

-Every time I saw Anita Bryant onscreen gabbing about the culture war I could only think of Sarah Palin. Because the visual is triggering enough, I'll space you the audio.

This clip never gets old:

I receive a lesson in prudency

2008-11-28T15:27:00.000-08:00

My Classics in Feminist Thought class read Judith Butler's Performative Acts and Gender Constitution. After our professor highlighted several aspects of the article, and asked the class to respond, I mentioned the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival as an example of a space that is ostensibly feminist but actively discriminatory. In response to my argument that the fesitval's womyn-born-womyn policy contradicts its purportedly feminist agenda, my professor engaged in some trans-misogyny of her own. She defended the festival's policy by stating "One of the things that women embrace at the festival is nudity," and "Women have to feel safe." After asking me whether I thought people should be able to "claim" an identity without a medical transition, she allowed several students to make statements like "Transgenders think they are more men and women than normal people."

I feel responsible for this conversation. It doesn't matter how well-intentioned my statement was. Ultimately (if unwittingly), I created a platform for my professor to make bigoted statements and legitimize ignorant statements by other members of the class. I definitely learned from this experience, but wish there was something I could do to counter the effect of the discussion my question generated.

A compliment

2008-11-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Casey said that I remind her of Pepper Ann. Someone said the same thing to me two years ago. My favorite on the show was Moose.

WNYC

2008-11-22T17:47:00.000-08:00

This interview from Friday's edition of the Brian Leherer show is representative of how problematic it can be to present science in a non-science context. The interviewer was completely unprepared to talk about basic principles relating to HIV. I found myself smaking my forehead when she interrupted Dr. Baltimore, suggesting that his explanations might be too complicated ("the viewers might not know what RNA is"). Really? I suspect she just flunked her high school Biology course.

How can WNYC arrange for a discussion of a recent clinical event, and not prepare the the interviewer to reference basic principles related to the circumstances of that clinical event? Treatment for HIV deserves to be handled intelligently (especially if we are talking about a cure), and requires some research on behalf of the show's production. Yet, Dr. Baltimore, as he explained that this case does not signify a drastic change in how HIV will be managed, had to bring the interviewer back to earth several times when she wandered off into whimsical (mis)interpretations of what he was saying. Baltimore, cognizant of how important it is to spell things out w/ care, even said: "People should continue taking their medications." He was working through interviewer haze.

And what about this haze? This interviewer's confusion constitutes a disrespect of the segment's content. If the point is to educate, the interviewer should ask the guest about references in a statement after that guest has finished speaking. Then, people who do understand the vocabulary will get what they need from the guest's original statement, and people who don't will have a complete thought they can figure out with the aid of reference tools (or interviewer questions that come after the statement). I admire Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Rachel Maddow of Air America and MSNBC precisely because they enable guests to speak without interruption (unless the guest is unfocused or overbearing), and limit the number of guests at a time. Sound bytes don't adequately explain the subtleties of the issues that media must wrangle with, and interrupting guests in pursuit of them oversimplifies and eclipses issues.

Duanna Johnson and two separate thoughts

2008-11-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

It would be wrong not to link to any of the many articles that describe the tragic death of Duanna Johnson: "Murder of Transgender Woman Revives Scrutiny" New York Times.

----

I also found this article about the increase in chronic kidney disease in the US, particularly among people of color, troubling. As someone who is privy to the confusing way that kidney disease is managed, it does not surprise me that physicians are suddenly diagnosing more cases. Trends like this testify to the dearth of primary care services accessible to communities of color. When I am distracted by selfish worry that I will not have time for my other interests next year, information like this reminds me of the potential I have to do work eight years from now that will have a direct impact on inequalities within healthcare. I am in such a privileged position.

___

Today, as I watched a Hunter security guard ride in circles around students on a segway,toying with the siren, I got to thinking about the 56 million dollars that was recently cut from CUNY's operating budget. When I register for spring 09 classes, I will be choosing from fewer Gender Studies electives. There is only ONE course on queer politics, for example. That's a disappointing development for me, but it's even worse for the adjuncts whose jobs are bing cut or scaled back, and it illustrates that fledgling departments like Gender Studies, Afro-Carribbean Studies, & Asian-American Studies are going to be hit hardest by budget cuts. In other words, it wasn't just the segway's siren that bothered me, it was the idea that CUNY is purchasing 5,000 dollar toys to patrol a VERTICAL campus while raising tuition and cutting jobs.

With the goal of holding CUNY accountable for decisions like this, a group of students/faculty is meeting at 7pm tomorrow night on the 8th floor of Hunter West to discuss budget cuts and tuition hikes. Come for free food, stay to talk strategy.

November 15th Prop 8 protest

2008-11-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

I remain unconvinced that civil marriage is the most important LGBT issue, but still believe it is important to show solidarity when religious groups effectively purchase the right to amend state constitutions. Many other bloggers have written eloquent critiques of the idea that marriage will change the inequalities faced by LGBT families, and, in a broader and more imminent sense, individuals.

Here are a few photographs I took the other day:

better for the wear

2008-11-09T10:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you Casey, Jaimie, Phoebe, William, Nick,Vern and Betsy for the surprise birthday celebration! Ya'll are as sweet as that peanut butter icing!

William and I went to see Deerhunter the past two nights. My favorite performance was last night at the Bowery. Lockett's guitar was louder in the mix, which was cleaner overall than at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. William and I were pleasantly surprised when they played "Like New" and "Spring Hall Convert" back to back, since those were two songs we had suggested were missing from Friday night's show. The musicianship of each band member was awe-inspiring, as usual. Each time I see Deerhunter live, I enjoy listening to their records more. I remember reading an interview with Bradford Cox in which he compared the recording process to building a house and live performance as a return to that house with the intent of destroying it. I thought it was a beautiful metaphor for how artistic creation evolves when you're forced to mediate on the same work over an extended period of time. I can only imagine how it feels to play songs hundreds of times. Speaking of a return to old material, they even played "New Animals" from Turn it Up, Faggot.

Set List: 8 Nov., 2008 Bowery Ballroom
Agoraphobia
Cryptograms
Never Stops
Like New
Spring Hall Convert
Nothing Ever Happened
Little Kids
Octet
Microcastle
Vox Humana
Twilight at Carbon Lake
___
New Animals
Hazel St
Calvary Scars

angsty

2008-10-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

A few minutes, ago I accidentally left my door ajar on my way to the kitchen to wash some dishes. I had Dan Friel's new record Ghost Town playing. One of the women on my hall came outside the kitchen, and called me into the hall.

"What are those strange sounds coming from your room?"
I felt bad for a minute, since the record is pretty noisy, but her subsequent barrage of rhetorical questioning ("Is that normal?" "What does that music do?") aimed at making me feel like a weirdo shortly killed my sympathy.

Yet, my neighbor's being weirded out is a resounding endorsement for the "strange sounds" Dan Friel. Check him outtt.

Here's a shot I took at a recent show he did at Ariel's venue, Less Artists More Condos:

found yr teeth in the river

2008-06-28T16:09:00.001-07:00

Tonight i'm headed to a Muggabears show; I can't wait to see them again and photograph them-- Travis Johnson is such a nut on stage. I really hope there's new material to be heard. I just noticed the other day that they posted one of the images I took last winter on their myspace page. It made me feel special.

I've been listening to the new Girl Talk and also to Hercules and the Love Affair for the last week. Herc is absolutely amazing. They're performing in NYC on the 8th of August. I've wanted to hear Antony Hegarty live for awhile now, and I bet this show will be fun-- this neo-disco shit is fun to dance to.

Interning at SRLP has been great. I really like the people I work with, and I'm disappointed that when MSP starts in a week I won't be in the office. Hopefully, there will be project opportunities this fall so that I can stick around. The interesting thing about being in a legal environment, is that it's confirming my desire to go to med school instead of exciting me about the prospect of being an attorney. I'm still signed up for the LSAT, and if I do well I'll apply at a few places, but for now I'm not seriously considering law school.

Talking to the physician I saw yesterday made me extremely conscious of the potential to do good as a family doctor, especially when it comes of GLBTQ care. Certainly there are different capacities through which I might serve a queer demographic, but I think working in a progressive environment like Callen Lorde's would be really interesting. Maybe what I should do is movie back to the Midwest and try to follow a similar model, since there is such a dearth of LGBTQ services in communities like the one I grew up in. I shouldn't get ahead of myself here.

I just finished Julia Serano's Whipping Girl. I (won't hold my breath) would really like for everyone I know to read it. Serano makes important distinctions between different types of sexism informed by her experience as a trans woman. She describes the medical establishment's rigid requirements for access to transition-related services and how these requirements shape media and public perceptions of femininity in trans women. Serano also discusses her identity politics in terms of a "subconscious sex," which I think is an interesting model because it defends people's right to self-define while still challenging the notion that gender is performative or mutable.

...that was attempt #1 at trying not to self-edit

2008-05-12T09:27:00.001-07:00

today in the computer lab it's savage garden being blasted. wtffffff?

2008-04-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

the person next to me is enthusiastically listening to eiffel 65's blue. on repeat. I am going to engage in a one-person experiment to see how long i can sit at this computer.

This week passed relatively quickly. The midterm on Thursday went smoothly in my Track III course, and I enjoyed the opening last night that the digital photography class hosted downtown to showcase their work this semester despite the fact that Ignacio nixed the wine.

I have a fair amount of work to occupy me these last two and a half weeks, which is a good thing. Also exciting is the approach of 5 de Mayo. Puebla has one of the largest celebrations in the entire country since the holiday originated here. There will be some great photos to be taken in the zocalo.

Yesterday Vera and I watched The Lover, which is based on a (semi-autobiographical) French novel by Marguerite Duras. The action centers on a 15 year old French girl living in imperial Vietnam right before WW2 who has a passionate relationship with a 30 year old wealthy man of Chinese descent. His wealth is relevant because of her family's relative desperate financial situation; the girl's mother turns a blind eye to the sexual nature of her daughter's relationship and actually accepts money on her daughter's behalf from the man. Their different ethnicities, in addition to their ages, shape the private and taboo nature of the relationship.

Although it was beautifully filmed, I was unsympathetic to the characters. What allowed me to sit through the film, in addition to Vera's presence, was the fact that I'm reading Lolita right now. In The Lover, the protagonist confuses a craving for a paternal figure with romantic love from an older man. The girl's poorly-applied lipstick and stumbling in high heels betray her carefully-cultivated adult identity as fallacious. Her lover, however, selectively ignores these details. The girl's desire for a sense of familial closeness even compels her to dance sexually with her younger brother. Her confusion of romantic and familial is pitiful, but I was frustrated because I didn't know what it was rooted.

I don't know. I remember a paper I wrote for about Edward Albee's The Goat in which I questioned the the distinction between different types of love.

un dia despues, no siento lo mismo.

2008-04-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Estoy avergonzado de mi entrada de ayer. Tenía el actitude de una fresa.

Tengo un mes. No es tiempo sufficiente concocer todas las cosas importantes aqui. Me extraño mis amigos y familia, nada mas.

get me outta here

2008-04-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

for these reasons:

the bathrooms smell like port-o-potties
at least once a week there is a problem with the sewage system, and the entire campus smells. A large truck comes and
has to suck all of the sewage from the pipes.
i am tired of food poisoning
people steal from the refrigerator
there are no concerts
the women who live in the dorms are completely unfriendly and live like slobs (photographic evidence to come)

caveats:
my spanish has improved dramatically
the experience has been a good test of my ability to live in a new place

a few from this weekend, more at flickr

2008-04-14T12:48:00.001-07:00

2008-04-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

maybe that last photo was too unattractive to post...

nature

2008-04-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was brushing my teeth this morning. and I realized that I was spitting out black toothpaste, so I examined my mouth and it was covered in a layer of what I can only assume to be the remnants of sulfur dioxide from the volcano.

I can't wait to get out of here.

william just sent me these

2008-04-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

the one of me is from my sophomore year of high school. William is in middle school. I love my brother.

2008-04-07T17:27:00.001-07:00

the volcano here is always gassing out sulfur. it smells.

more self portraits

2008-04-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

2008-04-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

i just got a letter from ariel in the mail today, right after we finished talking about the new manhattan venue he is opening this weekend. both things made me i wish i were in nyc right now. with six weeks left here, i'm wondering how much more slowly the time could pass. then again, maybe i don't have real reason to be disappointed in my time here-- i'm learning more spanish than i have in any course. i spoke with dad about feeling let down by my time here, and he asked me what was different about what i expected to find in mexico, and what my experience has actually been.

first, i expected to be more consumed with learning spanish. i do enjoy greater fluidity in my speech than i ever would have achieved in a classroom in the states, but in no way will i return fluent.

second , i expected to make friends with university students outside USAC. for the most part, however, mexican students in the dormitories are hostile toward exchange students. i excuse this treatment because many of them are young, and in their first year of university. However, all of the exchange students i know have had food stolen and negative things said about them in their presence by residents. the sense of entitlement among the dorm residents is astonishing; so many ash their cigarettes on the floor of the common room and leave their trash lying around because they expect las criadas to clean up after them. rather than call the office, students simply yell for security guards from wherever they happen to be in the dormitories when they need something.

my third expectation was that travel would be affordable here. i really was excited to see mexico. unfortunately, my financial estimates for this trip were completely off. the cost of living here compares to new york. without the ability to work, i don't really have extra cash.

a month or so ago, i spoke with a pizza parlor owner in atlixco who crossed the border illegally into the united states in the late 90s, only to return a few years later. he talked about honing his skills as a chef in the states, but how he ultimately missed the kinship he felt with his surroundings when he was in a familiar place. i have never liked to think of myself as someone who resists change, someone unadaptable. yet, my experience here is making me appreciate exactly how challenging it can be to accept a change in environment. In some ways, I feel the same way the pizza parlor owner did; i am glad that I have spent time here improving my spanish. Ultimately, however, I have come to the regret-tinged conclusion that I will be relieved to return to my family, friends, and routine in the states.

our weekend in D.F.

2008-03-31T12:58:00.001-07:00

Kelci, Tanya and I went to Mexico city this weekend. The bus station has really beautiful windows.

We stayed with this kid;

he is playing with a "Chinese yoyo."

The first night we stayed in and drank a few beers. Here, Kelci has Tanya up against the wall and is photographing her.

Saturday, Kelci and I took the train downtown.

Then, we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno where we saw this couple lying in the grass; they almost seemed a part of the temporary exhibition.

When we left the Museum of Contemporary Art, our second destination, there were several performances taking place in the park. These men were suspended from ropes tied around their legs and swung in circles from about 100 feet above the ground. Their ropes lengthened with each turn of the apparatus they were suspended from, so they eventually reached the ground.

We took the train to a small photography exhibit, then walked around near the neighborhood Copilco.

Leaving from bus station:

piece of street art

2008-03-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

pleasant easter scenes

2008-03-24T12:44:00.001-07:00

an eerie easter

2008-03-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

i call this one "bride of chucky wields light saber"

walking around on easter, i noticed some of the creepist religious symbolism I have seen here.

atlixco

2008-03-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

eggs

2008-03-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

i found these today. no nest in sight.

hace dos dias

2008-03-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

2 from last week

2008-03-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

self portraits

2008-02-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

Churches

2008-02-29T10:08:00.001-08:00

Non-Indigenous People

2008-02-29T09:47:00.001-08:00

Cholula

2008-02-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

downtown puebla

2008-02-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

fun with light

2008-01-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

driving along with my brother, i toyed with a point-and-shoot camera. here are the results.

I just laughed out loud

2008-01-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

Reading this article about American beers in the NY times, I paused at the author's line:

"Nowadays, the beer shelves are so crammed with brews labeled Maximus, Monstrous and Imperial that you feel as if you’ve stumbled into a file of e-mail spam."

During the past two weeks, I have relished reading for pleasure. When I returned home, my father handed me a copy of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. Ehrenreich balances personal experience in the workforce with academic research on working-class America, making for an easy but informative read (for her research, Enrenreich attempts to support herself through minimum-wage work in several different cities across the US over the course of 2 years). The final chapter deconstructs problems in low-income housing availability, and quantifies disparity between wages and the cost of living in the US. Nickel and Dimed makes the salient point that poverty cannot simply be described by the tenuous income standard used by the federal government; The income calculation, which was devised in the 1960s, relies on inflation-proof food rather than the more indicative rent rates as a standard of measurement. I like John Edwards' presidential campaign not only because of its attunement to poverty but also because Edwards wisely terms economic hardship in the US by issues besides a simple income calculation. Although I plan to remain open-minded, I currently would like to see Edwards as a VP.

A friend who read Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc brought the book to my attention. Random Family is a narrative of the lives of several generations of individuals living in public housing. The journalist documents more than ten years of their histories, and lives with the individuals she chronicles. Despite the caption on the front of the book, "Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx," LeBlanc's text resists the novelization of the individuals she profiles, which caused me to stick with the book for its 400 page duration. The book caused me to recognize the ignorance popular culture and the media exhibit in their degrading representations of individuals that welfare provisions often fail to support. When I recall my dealings with students at some of the urban high schools I worked in last year I now recognize that I could have been a better listener before trying to engage them in tutoring, and that my shameless talk about applying to college might have bordered on paternalistic and naive. I hope I get another chance this summer to meet some new students.

This entry started in a very different tone than I close it with, but thanks if you read all the way through. I leave for Mexico in five days. My mailing address will be

Emilie Wasserman
c/o Ignacio DIEZ ELORTEGUI/USAC
Universidad Iberoamericana
Blvd.del Nino Poblano, 2901
Puebla, PUE 72430
Mexico

Also, here are two pictures of my reading and would-be travel companion:

Muggabears

2007-12-31T10:25:00.001-08:00

Here are a few shots I liked from the Muggabears show at Glasslands Gallery earlier this month. I'm using a semi-automatic minolta film SLR.

07 list

2007-12-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

Being home has its perks. Yesterday, I was able to purchase Justice's Cross for only 7.99 at Best Buy. I have also been spending copious amounts of time with my brother, catching up with what he has been listening to the past few months, and sharing some of the music I acquired while at school with him. Unearthing my tub o albums from high school, I discovered at least fifty recordings i never plan to listen to again (at least thirty of which I was ashamed to remember owning), and so William and I traded them in for a few Animal Collective cds, In Rainbows, and a copy of Post at Coconuts.

I've been thinking about my favorite albums of this year for the past few weeks. Reading and talking about friend's lists has left me feeling somewhat hesitant to pass judgment because each list reminds me of so many wonderful albums released this year (see below), and that there are even more albums I have yet to hear (ex: Burial's Untrue).

1.That said, Deerhunter's Cryptograms is my favorite 07 endeavor by far. The distortion-haze of the album's soundscapes creates an ideal environment for Cox's vocals to resound in, and the recording has only become denser and more interesting over the course of the year with each of the four live Deerhunter performances I saw. On top of all this, the beautiful Flourescent Grey expanded the album another fifteen minutes. I could not have asked for anything more from a band this year.

2.Second comes Rise Above from Dirty Projectors. I love how Dave Longstreth's vocal and instrumental bursts punctuate the ethereal chorus of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian.

3. Night ChoreographyTravis Johnson's lyrics are eerie-cool and his noisy guitar-pop is so much fun to listen to. The last time I saw the Muggabears play, “She-Bears” was one of the most outstanding parts of their set. I marveled at band’s growth as I remembered the extreme hesitation with which they played it “for the first time” at their release party for Night Choreography early this year.

4.Listening to this record helps me recall my brother’s and my quick trip to IU for a friend’s party. It was a beautiful drive made even more pleasant by the expansive loveliness of Panda Bear's Person Pitch alongside views of and open landscape.

5. The second part of the Animal Collective block of my brief list. Strawberry Jam is unrelentingly noisy, and love it. Thanks, buddy, for introducing me to Animal Collective.

6.Deciding how to rank Spiderman of the Rings and Sound of Silver was really difficult. At the last minute, I decided to list LCD’s Sound of Silver first because I have listened to it more, and have been able to share my enthusiasm for it with more friends since it is ultimately more immediately-likable.

7. My favorite bill I saw this year included Dan Deacon, No Age, and Deerhunter. Seeing Deacon live caused me to return to Spiderman and really discover an appreciation for it, although its intrigue initially eluded me.

8.I guess this is low for a Radiohead record, and I don’t exactly know why it’s in the bottom half, except that there were so many projects I loved this year. Also, In Rainbows was released later in the year, and I haven’t gotten to listen to it as much as some of the other albums on my list.

9.Phosphorescent is another band I’ve been enamored with since I saw them live. I am easily affected by the country twang of Matthew Houck’s voice and lyrics, and the unpretentious tenderness of Pride is extremely comforting to hear when I find myself missing home while in NYC.

10.I round of my list with Yeasayer’s All Hour Cymbals. I don’t know if I want to see Yeasayer live, since I worry the band might not be able to duplicate the lush atmosphere of the record, but It sure sounds great through headphones.

2007-12-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in the Organic Chemistry lab in which I work, waiting for my reaction mixture to heat.

I haven't posted yet about the shows I saw last week (3!) because packing my belongings for the trip back to Evansville within airplane-sanctioned weight limits has proved to be a challenge, and film weighs less than photographs. When I return home, I am planning a flurry of posts, which will include my list of favorite albums from this year and concert photos and reviews

Last week reminded me of how much I will miss NYC when I finish college next year. Even though I encountered subway problems twice in the same day, which caused 25 dollars in unexpected cab fares to leap from my pocket, it was so nice to see 3 shows in the same week. Furthermore, the cold has been crisp and dry, making the transition to winter pleasant.

My physics course has become extremely interesting; I'm so glad it's a pre-med requirement. Newtonian physics wasn't exciting for me when I took it this summer, but studying Relativity and the nature of light has given me new appreciation for the field. I know pursuing medicine is the right choice for me, but the pre-med curriculum has allowed me to find academic interests outside the humanities, which I'm extremely grateful for.

Last week, while preparing a presentation on women in Blues for my Black Women Writers class, I found this video of Bessie Smith, which I recommend watching.

2007-12-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Dirty Projectors just gave one of the best performances I've seen this year. Although Rise Above is one of my favorite albums of 2007, recordings pale in comparison to the intensity of their live show. At the Bowery tonight, Dave Longstreth's vocal and instrumental spontaneity punctuated the ethereal two-woman chorus of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian with force. Fighting what appeared to be a brutal cough, Longstreth's heaving almost seemed to strengthen his vocal solos, which grasped moments and coerced them into slowing down . When he sings, Longstreth seems to force all of the air out of his lungs, fully inhabiting all of the aural space he possibly can.

I am re-orienting myself to an SLR, so most of my shots are for shame, but I'll improve!

this week > last week

2007-12-02T22:05:00.000-08:00

Last week exams were all the rage in my classes. Fortunately, they all went well, probably because I was battling a cold, and stayed in every night last week.

This week should be more exciting. Tuesday, I’ll see Dirty Projectors for the fourth time this year, and I’m really looking forward to it. I need to get a new battery for my SLR before then, since I’ve never photographed one of their sets and would really like to have some memento of this tour. It was extremely disappointing to realize that my battery was dead when I tried to take photos of Deerhunter at the Bowery last month (since it’s a film SLR and older, the camera doesn’t warn me when the battery is running low). Anyway, I’m excited about Tuesday because The Projectors have been extremely impressive each time I’ve seen them. “Gimme Gimme Gimme” is the perfect encore song. Also, Dirty Projectors are neat, neat, neat because they have done two Daytrotter sessions ( link to session one and session two).

Thursday, The Muggabears (link to free mp3s) are playing at Glasslands, and I’ll probably try to make it to that, since it will be my last opportunity to see them play before I leave the city. I like it when Travis Johnson cranks up his amplifier. I mean, his guitar work is already the central focus of every set, but god I love loud guitar. Maybe I’ll photograph that show, too.

The Muggabears show should be good. I have fond memories of Glasslands. The last time I was there, I saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and ran into a medical student from NYU, who gave me hope that I will be able to preserve some form of a social life while in medical school.

Thanks to anyone who read this. ☺

2007-11-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

I'm a third-year undergraduate at Hunter College in New York City. Until recently, I volunteered at Bellevue Hospital in the Emergency Department, an experience which inspired me to pursue the goal of becoming a doctor. I will start at Rochester School of Medicine in the fall of 2009.

I'd like to develop the habit of blogging so that when I move to Mexico for the Spring 08 semester I will create a log of my activities there. The blog will be a daily respite from Spanish, since all of my university class will be in Spanish.

A Midwerstern transplant to the city, my favorite things about living here is the abundance of live music; there's nothing I'd rather do with an evening than go see a show. A band I've seen on several occasions this past year, Deerhunter, just recorded an amazing studio session with Daytrotter. It can be found here. Although the title Activa makes me think of this commercial I saw while in Argentina last winter, the song is brilliant. I really like the recordings of Heatherwood and Dr. Glass, too. Yesterday, when I heard the songs for the first time, I sent a text to six people advising them to download the mp3s, hopefully someone else will happen upon this link.

Cheers,

Emilie