Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
Oh home and improvements, how I hate thee...

Firstly, I fixed the "bold" problem. It's amazing what a difference a ">" can make in the finicky screwball world of HTML.

Otherwise, currently, I hate home improvements. As was discussed back in the fall, my mother's cure for empty-nesting was nest re-building. Tomorrow the carpet guy comes to put white carpet into my parents' bedroom (a bedroom that was recently painted "yellow" ala Trading Spaces). Look, I am a big fan of the show, but when the Trading Spaces aesthetic descends harshy, it's hard work. There is lots of hauling, and often sunglass-requiring nuclear glowing wall paint, to contend with. The living room is next on her list, white leather couches and green paint, then a pumpkin orange dining room, and the whole house facelift began as she was re-doing the kitchen -- we don't talk about the kitchen anymore -- so we'll see what color that ends up. Additionally, here's to starting projects we never finish, considering that she took down the bathroom wallpaper in September and she doesn't even have a color in mind for that one! This place is a mess. My college stuff is everywhere. My parents' new bedroom furniture doesn't come until next week - so their stuff is piled everywhere. Upon returning in from the garage from my umpteenth trip dumping garbage bags of carpet scraps and crumbly padding, my mother asked me what my "plan" was for unpacking my stuff. Well, once I get over the flu, I'll get on it. I did do a fair amount today (for my grandmother) so I don't think it was a total wash. My substitute teacher app goes in tomorrow. I think today it finally hit me how long 8 months is. Ick. I'll keep you posted as I evolve into something more patient or move on to a new place.

Okay, now that my whinning is over, let's get onto the important stuff, American Idol II. Frankly, Simon, I am dissappointed with the show thus far. I liked the outtakes from the walk-on interviews, moments of talent peppered with plenty of freakies, that was good fun. Now that we're going from 32 to 10, it's just not the same American Idol I've come to know and love. For the life of me, I can't understand the new set (sans audience) with the roller rink lighting and the "naturalistic" karoke-type background screens that they put up behind the contestants. Ick. Paul Abdul looked more cracked out than ever tonight, there is something not right with that ex-ho. As for the two finalists so far, I can't understand the first guy, his name might be Charles, I think he looks like a thugged out chemo patient. But as for the second girl, Julia, she's from Connecticut, so I am a fan. Granted she is a bitchy hairdresser from CT, but I have some state pride. Call it seeded brunette revenge, but I was so happy that Julia beat out the ultra-fake huggy-everyone blonde named Katie. Apparently behind the scenes these two had quite a cat-fight but managed to get along for the taping last night. For some reason, the world, and brunettes collectively, smile when a brunette wins out over a blonde, it's just so deeply satisfying. I am a little disappointed that dreamy JD Adams can't sing. He's a looker - and descended from the Presidents Adams. He was god awful. I voted for Julia and Tenya, the later of which is obviously a has-been at this point. Hopefully next week will be better, this week didn't hold much talent-wise and the new set-up and set were equally as crappy. If American Idol is the one thing that is suppose to get me through the spring... so help me god, there needs to be more gin involved.

Anyway - Boston this weekend? It looks like the plan. Sing with me, in faux Partridge Family harmony, "C'mon get healthy!" otherwise I'll be miserable there instead of miserable on my own digital cabled couch. Speaking of which, I've caught the end to Basquiat twice in the past two days, and now I am geared up to watch the whole thing at 11:30. I studied grafitti art and his work under his alter-ego graffito name "Samo" in a class last spring and the movie, what I have seen of it, is good. David Bowie as Warhol, that's fun. Interestingly, his friend and fellow post-expressionist New York painter Julian Schnabel wrote the screenplay and selected the soundtrack. I'll give you the full review tomorrow once I watch the whole thing, but the music (mostly from Tom Waits and our friend Leonard Cohen) is very good too. I am trying not to make the obvious genre (artist biography) connection between Basquiat and Pollock, but the film look similiar. The actor who plays Basquiat is a deadringer, in look and gesture, for the Counting Crows frontman, Adam Duritz.

Also on my list of upcoming reviews, I've started, despite my sickness turned inability to concentrate, P. Adams Sitney's Visionary Film. I figure that if I am going to get a PhD in the stuff, I should brush up. Once I am feeling back to my old self, I'll alternate chapters between this and the Lev Manovich Language of New Media life divorced me from, but I seek reunion with this title. I have lots of legalistic reading I want to do on copyright, but everything is spread between boxes on different floors of the house -- all in due time, and once I am healthy, hopefully my curious appetite will return.

Assuming I ever recover from a sore throat and congestion, and once I get my clear thinking and sincere self back, I plan to write some very nice cards / emails to everyone who's been so good to be lately through this whole graduation debackle. So if you are one of patient gems, rest assured that I am thinking about you and am in the process of picking out fine and sparkley words to express my gratitude.
posted by lmjasinski at 9:42 PM