My two desert-island albums, I have realized conclusively (by "conclusively" I mean "because they have remained an unchanged pair for several years") are London Calling by the Clash and, of course, as anyone who knows me knows, the greatest album of all time, Graceland, by Paul Simon. The one a furious, musically and lyrically brilliant assault against the establishment and the other the product of a songwriter grappling beautifully with the onset of middle age and a painful divorce. The first, of course, is Graceland, the second, London Calling. Just kidding.
The rain in Santiago is paradoxical and cruel, I think whatever god reigns over Santiago weather has Bush's Iraq planners advising on winter weather patterns. A cap of cold air traps smog in Santiago (our presence in Iraq, which provokes massive violence there), rain comes in every once in a while to briefly clean things up ("surges"), but that same rain makes the air colder, meaning more air gets trapped (surges repress violence for a couple of days and then people just get more pissed and more violent). Then again, if it didn't rain, the smog would keep getting worse with no relief. And here I see the problem in my metaphor: The surges don't actually provide any relief at all except to the demented, divorced-from-reality people in charge. The rain does. Also the rain dramatically improves the view: The Andes are gorgeous again. So, an imperfect metaphor. Still, the vicious-cycle parallels are interesting.
One thing that comes up a lot when meeting and talking to Chileans, especially those of the university variety, is about the domestic problems of the US. Here the greatest social problems are income equality and, more specifically but just as embarrassingly, centuries of abuse, repression and neglect of Chile's substantial Mapuche minority. The correlating deep, embarrassing and infuriating social problem in the US, I would (and do, frequently) argue, is racism. Recently I've started reading more about the immigration debate going on at home, and it's obvious to pretty much anyone with an ounce of sense that the underlying conflict is fear and hatred of "brown people." The xenophobia of everyone from Lou Dobbs to the "Minutemen" of Texas and Arizona to some of the residents of Hazletown, PA (h/t Orcinus, post "Hatin' on Immigrants") makes me shake with anger. I want to get on a roll here, but because I really should be working on my Electoral Systems final, I'm going to come full circle and end with the Clash's take on anger in "The Clampdown":
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
Do you know that you can use it?
Amen.
P.S. A new blog is going up in the links: ImmigrationProf Blog, which is written by a trio of law professors at UC Davis. Represent.
P.P.S. ¡NINGÚN SER HUMANO ES ILEGAL!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
the downside of rain in stgo
Is that it seems Chilean urban planners and engineers aren't very good at drainage. This makes sense, on one hand, because Stgo is generally a dry city, but it does rain EVERY WINTER and there are HUGE UNAVOIDABLE SHOE-SOAKING LAKES all over the place. Also, half an hour ago, while trying to jump over one of said lakes, I landed on slippery tiles and fell on my ass and now my left leg is wet and cold. But I kept my shoes comparatively dry, so it was worth it, still, I think. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
it's rainin' water
I'm back in the Isidora Goyenechea Starbucks for the first time in along time. There's no way I'd be back here on my own except that at 8 COPA is taking me, four other kids and a bunch of gringo study abroad advisors out to dinner at a really nice restaurant, Isla Negra, on El Bosque. Seeing as that's three blocks from here, and seeing as I needed a change of scenery in order to buckle down a little, I'm here now.
The buckling down is mostly in the form of working on my two final essays. I'm still kind of in the dark about what each will deal with specifically. That's okay for the European Political Economy one, because all that's due next week is a presentation outlining what I'm going to talk about. So I need some idea of a thesis and structure, but nothing really research-based or overly specific. Electoral Systems, however, is a bigger issue. It's due on Tuesday and I'm still not entirely sure what's going on with it. I've been snooping around on JSTOR (long live JSTOR!), but now I will expound for a couple of minutes in hopes of clearing this business up.
In new democracies, social cleavages tend to get defined early on and have deep historical roots. According to one school of thought, these early cleavages remain fundamentally unchanged throughout the evolution of the democracy. For example, in France the most fundamental cleavage is thought to be the rural-urban divide, and that divide still rules the day in French politics. It takes different forms and is seen across various levels of society: industrial labor verus agriculture, churchgoing country dwellers versus non-churchgoing urbanites, etc. This fundamental divide is the basis for the party breakdown in modern France, as such fundamental cleavages form the foundation for party breakdowns in most democracies. However, rapidly growing integration has led to huge immigrant and minority populations that are changing the scene: Witness the victory of Sarkozy, a Reagan-esque nationalist (thanks to Juan Cole for that particular comparison) whose campaign made use of white French people's reactionary fears of Muslim immigrant unrest. The same kinds of divides are coming to the fore in England, Spain, Germany, the United States (obviously) and even in the traditionally homogeneous Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark. These are all highly developed, very stable Western democracies. But what of the less developed, newer European democracies who are participating in the same breakneck economic integration as those countries mentioned above, but without the accompanying influx of immigrants; i.e. what's up with countries whose populations are still remarkably homogeneous--religiously, ethnically, linguistically--like Ireland, Portugal, Poland and Greece? How do party politics break down in those countries, and how are they changing? Perhaps I should hypothesize that divides in those countries (I have to pick three, but that can be later) have to do traditionally with religious versus non-religious groups (i.e. commies), but increasingly have to do with protectionist/traditionalists versus integrationalist/progressives. That's a thought. Then again might be a bit ambitious for a ten-page paper with no time for original research. Still, good start. Good job, freewriting Luke.
BUT, the really big news of today is that it's raining and raining. This morning and early afternoon saw veritable torrents (relatively speaking, of course), and after a mid-afternoon break it's raining lightly but steadily now. Apparently this will continue for a couple of days, which means two very, very wonderful things: First, the mountains will look spectacular as soon as the clouds go away; and second, the air is clean as hell. It's so strange it is to grow accustomed to things a quarter of a mile away being hazy and indistinct in the middle of the day and then all of a sudden being able to see individual trees on a hill miles distant; like walking around all day wondering why things don't look quite right, then realizing that one of your glasses lenses has a substantial smudge on it, then cleaning it off and remembering what things are supposed to look like.
I posted a video the last time this happened, but today's rain-induced happiness can't quite measure up to the giddy ecstasy of that other day, because the wait hadn't been as long. So no video today. Still, frisbee is going to be 85 billion times better on Sunday because the air will be pristine. Oh baby! And now, it's time to get back to work. Profe Altman sent me an article by Alberto Alesina about fractionalization, complete with table of measurements of the ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization of almost 200 countries. Hott with two t's.
P.S. That link to Cole above is worth checking out; I know nothing about French politics so for all I know he's totally wrong, and his interests are certainly biased in favor of the Muslim world, but it's still a very interesting brief analysis.
P.P.S. The bathroom of this Starbucks smells fantastic.
The buckling down is mostly in the form of working on my two final essays. I'm still kind of in the dark about what each will deal with specifically. That's okay for the European Political Economy one, because all that's due next week is a presentation outlining what I'm going to talk about. So I need some idea of a thesis and structure, but nothing really research-based or overly specific. Electoral Systems, however, is a bigger issue. It's due on Tuesday and I'm still not entirely sure what's going on with it. I've been snooping around on JSTOR (long live JSTOR!), but now I will expound for a couple of minutes in hopes of clearing this business up.
In new democracies, social cleavages tend to get defined early on and have deep historical roots. According to one school of thought, these early cleavages remain fundamentally unchanged throughout the evolution of the democracy. For example, in France the most fundamental cleavage is thought to be the rural-urban divide, and that divide still rules the day in French politics. It takes different forms and is seen across various levels of society: industrial labor verus agriculture, churchgoing country dwellers versus non-churchgoing urbanites, etc. This fundamental divide is the basis for the party breakdown in modern France, as such fundamental cleavages form the foundation for party breakdowns in most democracies. However, rapidly growing integration has led to huge immigrant and minority populations that are changing the scene: Witness the victory of Sarkozy, a Reagan-esque nationalist (thanks to Juan Cole for that particular comparison) whose campaign made use of white French people's reactionary fears of Muslim immigrant unrest. The same kinds of divides are coming to the fore in England, Spain, Germany, the United States (obviously) and even in the traditionally homogeneous Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark. These are all highly developed, very stable Western democracies. But what of the less developed, newer European democracies who are participating in the same breakneck economic integration as those countries mentioned above, but without the accompanying influx of immigrants; i.e. what's up with countries whose populations are still remarkably homogeneous--religiously, ethnically, linguistically--like Ireland, Portugal, Poland and Greece? How do party politics break down in those countries, and how are they changing? Perhaps I should hypothesize that divides in those countries (I have to pick three, but that can be later) have to do traditionally with religious versus non-religious groups (i.e. commies), but increasingly have to do with protectionist/traditionalists versus integrationalist/progressives. That's a thought. Then again might be a bit ambitious for a ten-page paper with no time for original research. Still, good start. Good job, freewriting Luke.
BUT, the really big news of today is that it's raining and raining. This morning and early afternoon saw veritable torrents (relatively speaking, of course), and after a mid-afternoon break it's raining lightly but steadily now. Apparently this will continue for a couple of days, which means two very, very wonderful things: First, the mountains will look spectacular as soon as the clouds go away; and second, the air is clean as hell. It's so strange it is to grow accustomed to things a quarter of a mile away being hazy and indistinct in the middle of the day and then all of a sudden being able to see individual trees on a hill miles distant; like walking around all day wondering why things don't look quite right, then realizing that one of your glasses lenses has a substantial smudge on it, then cleaning it off and remembering what things are supposed to look like.
I posted a video the last time this happened, but today's rain-induced happiness can't quite measure up to the giddy ecstasy of that other day, because the wait hadn't been as long. So no video today. Still, frisbee is going to be 85 billion times better on Sunday because the air will be pristine. Oh baby! And now, it's time to get back to work. Profe Altman sent me an article by Alberto Alesina about fractionalization, complete with table of measurements of the ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization of almost 200 countries. Hott with two t's.
P.S. That link to Cole above is worth checking out; I know nothing about French politics so for all I know he's totally wrong, and his interests are certainly biased in favor of the Muslim world, but it's still a very interesting brief analysis.
P.P.S. The bathroom of this Starbucks smells fantastic.
Monday, June 11, 2007
weekend in brief
First, everyone should check out this really cool video that Dad sent me by email. I highly suggest watching the whole thing:
500 YEARS OF WOMEN IN ART
Anyhow, highlights of the weekend include me driving for the first time in almost 11 months, yesterday. I made crab cakes for Vale and her aunt and uncle (the kids got tuna with mustard, which is apparently a house favorite), and Vale and I had to go to the grocery store to pick up some key ingredients, like crab meat. So I drove Rodrigo's car to Alto Las Condes and back. It was kind of nerve-wracking getting in, just because it had been so long, but as soon as we started going it was fun and easy. Helped that it was Sunday morning and the road's weren't exactly crowded. And then, on the way back, instead of going straight to Rodrigo and Cecilia's house, I drove past it a little ways and pulled into a little mini parking lot/lookout type place, and passed the keys to Vale. She's 28 years old and had never driven a car, not even in a parking lot. So she had her first driving experience; she wasn't bad for a first-timer although the whole staying-in-your-lane thing would have been a problem had there been any other cars around. Pays to live waaayyyy out there.
Also we watched "Goodbye Lenin," a very sweet German movie about a kid from East Germany growing up and coming of age during the fall of the USSR. I liked it a lot, and so did Vale, although she fell asleep for about the last 20 or 30 minutes. We watched with Spanish subtitles and I got everything except for a couple of words here and there (like maybe 8 total the whole movie), which was a good feeling.
Yesterday also was my first time back at frisbee after a two-week absence, and despite having eaten a crab cake sandwich and fries before playing, which caused a few issues towards the beginning, I played really well and had a great time. Afterwards of course included a trip to Tortilla Factory. Blackberry, raspberry, banana, apple and blueberry smoothie and a cup of coffee plus the house corn chips and salsa...perrrrfect. Vale wanted to go buy some tea after that at a hoity-toity tea store in Alto Las Condes, so we walked across the street. I also hadn't just kind of mosied and people-watched and window-shopped in a mall for a long time. Malls, love them or hate them, are interesting places. We went into a couple of book stores trying to find a copy of Intérprete de Emociones (Interpreter of Maladies) but the translated edition is apparently out of print and sold out everywhere. Vale also dragged me into various clothing stores and made me try on coats. If I had money to burn I'd like to buy a nice pea-coat-type thing, the ones I tried on were really comfortable and I like the way they look. But the cheapest one was like 150 bucks (which, I suppose, isn't that much in the long run, but it's too much for me right now), so my very nice parka and various sweatshirts and fleeces will suffice just fine for the time being.
We're reading right now, in European Political Economy, about the adjustments that OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development--basically Europe, North America, some Latin America, and E/SE Asia) countries have had to make over the last 30 years to their trade and monetary policy and also to their welfare states. I think the latter is what I'm going to write my final paper about for the class. How countries like Sweden and Denmark, which have powerful social-democratic welfare states that, to me, seem overwhelmingly fairer and more appealing than the residual welfare states (bascially, no help until you're screwed, and then not very much) of the Anglo countries or the corporatist, conservative welfare states of Germany and Austria (extremely compartmentalized and unevenly distributed help based on job category). The de-commodification of labor in the Norwegian countries is wonderful but they are the most vulnerable to collapse under current structural (globalization, general aging of the population) and institutional (the EU, weakening of labor organizations) changes. It sucks for them, and I think how they respond to those changes has been and is going to be really interesting and instructive. Can they make it without compromising their whole systems, and what are they doing to try?
Speaking of which, I should eat breakfast and then get reading. We've got class today for the first time in months because we missed a couple of Wednesdays and need to make them up. Hope you enjoyed the video.
500 YEARS OF WOMEN IN ART
Anyhow, highlights of the weekend include me driving for the first time in almost 11 months, yesterday. I made crab cakes for Vale and her aunt and uncle (the kids got tuna with mustard, which is apparently a house favorite), and Vale and I had to go to the grocery store to pick up some key ingredients, like crab meat. So I drove Rodrigo's car to Alto Las Condes and back. It was kind of nerve-wracking getting in, just because it had been so long, but as soon as we started going it was fun and easy. Helped that it was Sunday morning and the road's weren't exactly crowded. And then, on the way back, instead of going straight to Rodrigo and Cecilia's house, I drove past it a little ways and pulled into a little mini parking lot/lookout type place, and passed the keys to Vale. She's 28 years old and had never driven a car, not even in a parking lot. So she had her first driving experience; she wasn't bad for a first-timer although the whole staying-in-your-lane thing would have been a problem had there been any other cars around. Pays to live waaayyyy out there.
Also we watched "Goodbye Lenin," a very sweet German movie about a kid from East Germany growing up and coming of age during the fall of the USSR. I liked it a lot, and so did Vale, although she fell asleep for about the last 20 or 30 minutes. We watched with Spanish subtitles and I got everything except for a couple of words here and there (like maybe 8 total the whole movie), which was a good feeling.
Yesterday also was my first time back at frisbee after a two-week absence, and despite having eaten a crab cake sandwich and fries before playing, which caused a few issues towards the beginning, I played really well and had a great time. Afterwards of course included a trip to Tortilla Factory. Blackberry, raspberry, banana, apple and blueberry smoothie and a cup of coffee plus the house corn chips and salsa...perrrrfect. Vale wanted to go buy some tea after that at a hoity-toity tea store in Alto Las Condes, so we walked across the street. I also hadn't just kind of mosied and people-watched and window-shopped in a mall for a long time. Malls, love them or hate them, are interesting places. We went into a couple of book stores trying to find a copy of Intérprete de Emociones (Interpreter of Maladies) but the translated edition is apparently out of print and sold out everywhere. Vale also dragged me into various clothing stores and made me try on coats. If I had money to burn I'd like to buy a nice pea-coat-type thing, the ones I tried on were really comfortable and I like the way they look. But the cheapest one was like 150 bucks (which, I suppose, isn't that much in the long run, but it's too much for me right now), so my very nice parka and various sweatshirts and fleeces will suffice just fine for the time being.
We're reading right now, in European Political Economy, about the adjustments that OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development--basically Europe, North America, some Latin America, and E/SE Asia) countries have had to make over the last 30 years to their trade and monetary policy and also to their welfare states. I think the latter is what I'm going to write my final paper about for the class. How countries like Sweden and Denmark, which have powerful social-democratic welfare states that, to me, seem overwhelmingly fairer and more appealing than the residual welfare states (bascially, no help until you're screwed, and then not very much) of the Anglo countries or the corporatist, conservative welfare states of Germany and Austria (extremely compartmentalized and unevenly distributed help based on job category). The de-commodification of labor in the Norwegian countries is wonderful but they are the most vulnerable to collapse under current structural (globalization, general aging of the population) and institutional (the EU, weakening of labor organizations) changes. It sucks for them, and I think how they respond to those changes has been and is going to be really interesting and instructive. Can they make it without compromising their whole systems, and what are they doing to try?
Speaking of which, I should eat breakfast and then get reading. We've got class today for the first time in months because we missed a couple of Wednesdays and need to make them up. Hope you enjoyed the video.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
tinariwen
Some big things in the past couple of days:
Bought "Aman Iman: Water is Life" by Tinariwen, a group of Touaregs who started playing together as separatist rebels in Mali in the 80s. Their music is absolutely amazing. I realize at moments like this the disadvantages of my tendency to use lots and lots of superlatives without much regard for degree. This album blows me away every time I listen to it, it deserves superlatives that are beyond my vocabulary. A video follows of them playing with Santana at Montreux.
Finished "Four Quartets," by T.S. Eliot, which Dad mailed to me last week. It is stunning. I found that reading it reminds me a little of reading Spanish, in the sense that I really had to pay attention to every word, and to how every word related to every other word, in order to really understand what he was trying to say. This in contrast with, say, A Bend in the River, which I'm also reading, and can much more easily read without devoting my full attention to it. Dad: Thank you.
Jack was home last weekend and part of this week, and I got to talk to him on Monday night, which was great. He sounded tired (he'd gotten a vaccine earlier that day for El Salvador) but so good and it was really nice to hear his voice, hear how he's doing, what his plans are shaping up to be for the summer, and everything. I got to talk to Lincoln for a long time, too, which was also really nice. He's done with his first year and back home for the summer and I hadn't caught up with him for real in a while. Monday night was a good night. On a related note, Skype is a treacherous friend. On a note related to the last one (things that drove me completely off the wall this week), the IFSA-Butler/Michigan/DOE bureaucracy finally broke me. I can't write any more about that right now because my heart rate will start going up again and I'd rather maintain my current, calm state of mind.
One of my final projects (Political Economy) got pushed back and now is not due in preliminary form until the week after next. This removes a huge amount of pressure and will allow me to focus in my Electoral Systems final, which is due the 19. Speaking of David Altman (my Elec Sys professor), today he asked me to edit a paper he'd written in English comparing Uruguay and Switzerland. It's very interesting, not just because of the subject matter (I know little about Switzerland and less about Uruguay), but because it's strange to read the writing of someone who is clearly academically knowledgeable and accomplished but who is at the same time obviously not writing in his first language. So it's a mix of really obvious grammatical mistakes and interesting direct translations (you can say "como una moneda de esos sentimientos" in Spanish, but "as a coin of those feelings" doesn't really make sense in English; what he meant was "exemplifying those feelings") and elevated and technical language. I'm enjoying it a lot, plus it appears that I'll be compensated financially for my efforts.
Other important things have happened and this was originally going to be a long post, but I got distracted first yesterday and then today, so that's all you're gonna get at the moment. Oh, I saw Zodiac. Good movie.
Okay, so here's Tinariwen featuring Santana. Music starts a minute in.
Bought "Aman Iman: Water is Life" by Tinariwen, a group of Touaregs who started playing together as separatist rebels in Mali in the 80s. Their music is absolutely amazing. I realize at moments like this the disadvantages of my tendency to use lots and lots of superlatives without much regard for degree. This album blows me away every time I listen to it, it deserves superlatives that are beyond my vocabulary. A video follows of them playing with Santana at Montreux.
Finished "Four Quartets," by T.S. Eliot, which Dad mailed to me last week. It is stunning. I found that reading it reminds me a little of reading Spanish, in the sense that I really had to pay attention to every word, and to how every word related to every other word, in order to really understand what he was trying to say. This in contrast with, say, A Bend in the River, which I'm also reading, and can much more easily read without devoting my full attention to it. Dad: Thank you.
Jack was home last weekend and part of this week, and I got to talk to him on Monday night, which was great. He sounded tired (he'd gotten a vaccine earlier that day for El Salvador) but so good and it was really nice to hear his voice, hear how he's doing, what his plans are shaping up to be for the summer, and everything. I got to talk to Lincoln for a long time, too, which was also really nice. He's done with his first year and back home for the summer and I hadn't caught up with him for real in a while. Monday night was a good night. On a related note, Skype is a treacherous friend. On a note related to the last one (things that drove me completely off the wall this week), the IFSA-Butler/Michigan/DOE bureaucracy finally broke me. I can't write any more about that right now because my heart rate will start going up again and I'd rather maintain my current, calm state of mind.
One of my final projects (Political Economy) got pushed back and now is not due in preliminary form until the week after next. This removes a huge amount of pressure and will allow me to focus in my Electoral Systems final, which is due the 19. Speaking of David Altman (my Elec Sys professor), today he asked me to edit a paper he'd written in English comparing Uruguay and Switzerland. It's very interesting, not just because of the subject matter (I know little about Switzerland and less about Uruguay), but because it's strange to read the writing of someone who is clearly academically knowledgeable and accomplished but who is at the same time obviously not writing in his first language. So it's a mix of really obvious grammatical mistakes and interesting direct translations (you can say "como una moneda de esos sentimientos" in Spanish, but "as a coin of those feelings" doesn't really make sense in English; what he meant was "exemplifying those feelings") and elevated and technical language. I'm enjoying it a lot, plus it appears that I'll be compensated financially for my efforts.
Other important things have happened and this was originally going to be a long post, but I got distracted first yesterday and then today, so that's all you're gonna get at the moment. Oh, I saw Zodiac. Good movie.
Okay, so here's Tinariwen featuring Santana. Music starts a minute in.
Monday, June 04, 2007
apparently blair 07 graduates today
Thank you, Julia S-M's away message. Congratulations, friends' younger siblings.
Today is a day of homicidal feelings against Skype, an astounding technology that betrayed me last night and today. Because it's just software, I feel no loyalty to it, and now I want to kill it, or at the very least, for it to acknowledge my attempts to add money to my account so I can call home. Jack is there and I haven't talked to him in a bajillion years and it was so wonderful to hear his voice last night even for two minutes. I told him I'd call today but Skype is still telling me to go fuck myself, so I'm kind of stuck. Hopefully someone at home will finally get Skype today and we can talk for free, Skype credit be damned.
Okay, I need to go do some (a lot of) work now. Deep breaths all around, I can't wait for yoga tonight.
Today is a day of homicidal feelings against Skype, an astounding technology that betrayed me last night and today. Because it's just software, I feel no loyalty to it, and now I want to kill it, or at the very least, for it to acknowledge my attempts to add money to my account so I can call home. Jack is there and I haven't talked to him in a bajillion years and it was so wonderful to hear his voice last night even for two minutes. I told him I'd call today but Skype is still telling me to go fuck myself, so I'm kind of stuck. Hopefully someone at home will finally get Skype today and we can talk for free, Skype credit be damned.
Okay, I need to go do some (a lot of) work now. Deep breaths all around, I can't wait for yoga tonight.
Friday, June 01, 2007
john cole
I will be adding Balloon Juice to my links after I finish this post. You will understand why after reading this Greenwald post about the new right-wing whine that "al-Qaeda tortures, too, why did the liberal media hammer home Abu Ghraib but not this?" Greenwald has lots of detailed analysis, but Cole's post, which he links to, sums it up very succinctly. In its entirety:
"It isn’t news because they are terrorists, you fucking simpletons. Yesterday, my cat scratched himself then shit in a box. The media didn’t report that, either."
Would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating.
"It isn’t news because they are terrorists, you fucking simpletons. Yesterday, my cat scratched himself then shit in a box. The media didn’t report that, either."
Would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
rain rain beautiful rain!
Last night, while Santiago slept, the rain that we have been waiting for since February--and REALLY waiting for since about a month ago--came to us. It rained and rained and now the mountains are gorgeous, covered in snow, and I can see clear to Puente Alto. This also means that I will run tonight, after class. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! WHEEE!!!!
I wanted to get "Rain Rain Beautiful Rain" by Ladysmith Black Mambazo but couldn't find it on YouTube or Google Video, so here's a little classic Gene Kelly instead.
I wanted to get "Rain Rain Beautiful Rain" by Ladysmith Black Mambazo but couldn't find it on YouTube or Google Video, so here's a little classic Gene Kelly instead.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
another reason pbs is amazing
I thought this site was incredibly cool. I guess I'm a little behind on the times in the PBS department, it's kind of old, but so great all the same.
immigration hypocrisy
I think I spelled "hypocrisy" right. Whatever. Anyhow, there's an interesting piece up right now on Upside-Down World comparing the case of a legal Kurdish immigrant who was deported back to Turkey--a very dangerous and oppressive place for Kurds--despite complying completely with immigration laws and regulations, and Luis Posada Carriles, a proudly convicted terrorist who admitted to entering the US illegally but has been allowed to live in the country as long as he likes, with no legal worries at all. The article is here. I realize that such comparisons are not really worth much in any kind of fair or scientific sense, and Upside-Down World is certainly not one to shy away from ignoring aspects of a story in order to make a point (see their impassioned and misguided defense of Chavez shutting down RCTV--the repeated argument that it was okay because RCTV made Fox News "look like a kitten" doesn't really fly). But the point gets made all the same, and well. Our immigration policy is very, very fucked up in a lot of ways, and the recent bill hasn't improved it at all. Para Justicia y Libertad had a good post on this a week ago.
My host sister, Pili, has had a nightmare of a time trying to get a tourist visa to come to the U.S. in July (she'll be leaving right around when I do). Her process appears to be finally ending because Katty got back from her travels and, well, Katty knows everyone and their mother and will get this all ironed out right quick. That's how Katty rolls. But if Pili had been trying to do it on her own? Man, I'm not even sure she would have gotten it, and she's got freckles and is in grad school right now, she's not even a scary illiterate brown person. Ugh. Meantime, Michaela Sachs is in town and we've been texting the past few days trying to figure out a time to meet up. I'm going to give her a call today as soon as I get showered and dressed. Perhaps we'll get lunch? Speaking of showers, I'd better hop in, I'm pretty gross at the moment. Before I do, I feel the need to report that my back has been killing me the past couple of days, kind of constant discomfort punctuated by occasional "Ow shit!" moments. I'm sure it has something to do with yoga, and I'm going to ask Felipe tonight what I'm doing wrong that's causing the pain. Also why my hip flexors hurt when I'm doing inside-of-the-leg positions. Yoga is great, I'm so glad I have it because running is so far out of the question. I see people running every once in a while and think to myself, "Oh dear, that person has lost their mind. Poor lungs." Yes and Cori came over to Vale's last night again with Bessie and Chris and we had a very fun Spanglish time, plus a good salad made by Cori and Chris the expert chefs. Also Cori has no recollection of any Michaela, which kind of confused me. Would either of my parents care to clear up how this is possible? Joshy was in my dream last night, holy crap...
Wow, I'm in full on free-association ramble mode. Cool.
My host sister, Pili, has had a nightmare of a time trying to get a tourist visa to come to the U.S. in July (she'll be leaving right around when I do). Her process appears to be finally ending because Katty got back from her travels and, well, Katty knows everyone and their mother and will get this all ironed out right quick. That's how Katty rolls. But if Pili had been trying to do it on her own? Man, I'm not even sure she would have gotten it, and she's got freckles and is in grad school right now, she's not even a scary illiterate brown person. Ugh. Meantime, Michaela Sachs is in town and we've been texting the past few days trying to figure out a time to meet up. I'm going to give her a call today as soon as I get showered and dressed. Perhaps we'll get lunch? Speaking of showers, I'd better hop in, I'm pretty gross at the moment. Before I do, I feel the need to report that my back has been killing me the past couple of days, kind of constant discomfort punctuated by occasional "Ow shit!" moments. I'm sure it has something to do with yoga, and I'm going to ask Felipe tonight what I'm doing wrong that's causing the pain. Also why my hip flexors hurt when I'm doing inside-of-the-leg positions. Yoga is great, I'm so glad I have it because running is so far out of the question. I see people running every once in a while and think to myself, "Oh dear, that person has lost their mind. Poor lungs." Yes and Cori came over to Vale's last night again with Bessie and Chris and we had a very fun Spanglish time, plus a good salad made by Cori and Chris the expert chefs. Also Cori has no recollection of any Michaela, which kind of confused me. Would either of my parents care to clear up how this is possible? Joshy was in my dream last night, holy crap...
Wow, I'm in full on free-association ramble mode. Cool.
Monday, May 28, 2007
music wish list
As I opened the book wish list a couple of days ago, today I open the music wish list with "Rendezvous in New York" by Chick Corea.
going to a town
I'm not the world's biggest Rufus Wainwright fan. I get why some people are, his songs are sensitive and deep and beautiful, but for whatever reason he just doesn't generally strike a chord with me. The only song of his that I really love is "Beauty Mark," from his self-titled album. This song falls into the "songs that should give me goosebumps but don't" category, but it's really good and apparently pissing lots of people in the States, and that's excuse enough to share it.
(h/t C & L)
(h/t C & L)
Sunday, May 27, 2007
much better
Introducing the new, more stylish Barullo. More little changes to come. For a summary (I just typed "resumen" which is summary in Spanish...) of the weekend: Friday night I went with Vale to her favorite café, Granos y Hojas. It's a very cute little boutiquey type place, with fantastic hot chocolate and an impressive array of tea and coffee for sale. I really liked it. After that, we went for a couple of pre-gringo-party drinks, then to Líder for our contributiong to the party, then to the party. It was technically Jesse's birthday, but it turned into a real live Michigan-Wisconsin gringo party, with beer pong and flip cup and everything. But with a Chilean twist, seeing as a lot of Chileans came and there was also longaniza on the grill, and pisco sour. Vale had a great time, too, which was good because I had been a little afraid that she'd get overwhelmed by the gringo-ness. I forgot, however, that she works with 20 and 21 year old North American college students for a living.
We woke up at 4 in the afternoon on Saturday and did practically nothing before popping Zoolander in at 11 and falling asleep right after it ended. Sunday, however, is proving dramatically more productive. I got to Rodrigo and Cecilia's around 12:20, thanks to an endless wait at Cantagallo for the local bus. The class went really well, Ricardo and Dani are both good students in their own way. Ricardo is hard working and enthusiastic; it's obvious he really wants to learn English, but he's not as receptive to the sound of it as Dani. She dallies and drags her feet, but she's got a great ear for pronunciation and I generally only have to correct her once or at most twice before she says the word with barely a trace of an accent. Vale got here around 1:30 with Cecilia, having gone first to church and then to the grocery store. Now we've all eaten lunch and the coffee is just finished. Oh, and today I also read a very interesting essay about the convergence/divergence debate in developed capitalist democracies. I think it's also the first thing I've read in which the authors come out and say, "we're institutionalists," and also give unambiguous, easy-to-remember names to the institutions they're attempting to describe. Refreshing. Anyhow, still got lots of reading left today, but now it's coffee time.
We woke up at 4 in the afternoon on Saturday and did practically nothing before popping Zoolander in at 11 and falling asleep right after it ended. Sunday, however, is proving dramatically more productive. I got to Rodrigo and Cecilia's around 12:20, thanks to an endless wait at Cantagallo for the local bus. The class went really well, Ricardo and Dani are both good students in their own way. Ricardo is hard working and enthusiastic; it's obvious he really wants to learn English, but he's not as receptive to the sound of it as Dani. She dallies and drags her feet, but she's got a great ear for pronunciation and I generally only have to correct her once or at most twice before she says the word with barely a trace of an accent. Vale got here around 1:30 with Cecilia, having gone first to church and then to the grocery store. Now we've all eaten lunch and the coffee is just finished. Oh, and today I also read a very interesting essay about the convergence/divergence debate in developed capitalist democracies. I think it's also the first thing I've read in which the authors come out and say, "we're institutionalists," and also give unambiguous, easy-to-remember names to the institutions they're attempting to describe. Refreshing. Anyhow, still got lots of reading left today, but now it's coffee time.
Friday, May 25, 2007
aesthetics
Also, I've gotten sick of Barullo's design and will be changing it sometime soon. Just so you're not caught off guard.
new (for me) blogs
I've decided to, well, not to take a break from Juan Cole and Greenwald and C & L and digby, but to start exploring the blogosphere a little more. The "mainstream" blogs--like those I just mentioned--are totally indispensable in their way, but they are also limited by their quantity and also by a certain moderateness. It's incredible, actually, that they're portrayed as crazy left-wingers by anyone at all, they're generally solid liberals who happen to be caught in a time when the discourse has shifted so far to the right that anyone left of center must be a bra-burning Hamas-loving baby-killing commie. They're not pushing the boundaries, really, they're just pushing back against media and governmental repression, inaction and incompetence. All this by way of saying, there is really interesting stuff in some of the more personal blogs, people just writing down what they feel as it comes. Kind of like me, but heavier on the commentary and lighter on the "this is what I did today". Two good ones that I just found are Unsane and Safe and The Quaker Agitator. So anyhow, I'll be adding those to my "places you should go because i like them" as I come across them. I put up Chile from Within and The Latin Americanist a couple of days ago.
On a related note, I've been having a bit of a debate with my friend Lindsay about the value of blogs. She is a centrist through and through--a huge Bloomberg supporter--who has not, as I and many others have, lost her faith in the media. We disagree on a lot of things, which is fine, life would be insufferably boring if everyone with a shred of intelligence agreed about everything. But blogs are a point where I think she's really wrong. One of these days I'll write down my thoughts about the worth of blogs, but for now I'll leave it by pointing out that our little debate (Lindsay's and mine) is interesting because when we talk to each other about blogs, we're really talking about the mainstream ones--the aforementioned plus many others on the left, and then Politico and Michelle Malkin (crazy psycho), et al. on the right--not about the thousands of small-time bloggers whose contributions, however small, to our intellectual discourse, are collectively a breath of fresh air. I live in one of the smoggiest cities in the world; believe me, I know the value of breaths of fresh air. So if you've got a couple of minutes, check 'em out.
On a related note, I've been having a bit of a debate with my friend Lindsay about the value of blogs. She is a centrist through and through--a huge Bloomberg supporter--who has not, as I and many others have, lost her faith in the media. We disagree on a lot of things, which is fine, life would be insufferably boring if everyone with a shred of intelligence agreed about everything. But blogs are a point where I think she's really wrong. One of these days I'll write down my thoughts about the worth of blogs, but for now I'll leave it by pointing out that our little debate (Lindsay's and mine) is interesting because when we talk to each other about blogs, we're really talking about the mainstream ones--the aforementioned plus many others on the left, and then Politico and Michelle Malkin (crazy psycho), et al. on the right--not about the thousands of small-time bloggers whose contributions, however small, to our intellectual discourse, are collectively a breath of fresh air. I live in one of the smoggiest cities in the world; believe me, I know the value of breaths of fresh air. So if you've got a couple of minutes, check 'em out.
as if we needed reminding
Keith Olbermann is the man. The Democratic Congress is, inexplicably, counterintuitively, shamefully, still its weak-need kowtowing self. Despite an ovewhelming mandate for a troop withdrawal timeline (close to 70% in the latest CBS poll), they can't seem to help themselves in capitulating to the disgusting "leaders," all of whom should have been impeached long ago. Watch this video.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Milan 2-1 Liverpool
I'm not the world's biggest soccer fan by any means, but being in Latin America it's pretty hard not to follow these things at least a little bit. The match today was not very high-quality (the commentators kept talking about all the errors that were being made by each side, but especially Liverpool) but still, high-level, high-stakes soccer is beautiful to watch, and soccer fans are just as crazy and loud as any group of college football or basketball fans. Sorry, Liverpool, but Milan just outplayed you, like they were supposed to in 05. I wanted to root for you because you're from the English-speaking world, but Milan has two players whose names sound like "caca" and that's enough to win my temporary fandom.
And now, back to the reading I've been doing all day (even during the game--I know! My powers of concentration are legendary...) to catch up for Electoral Systems and for my test tomorrow in Armed Conflict.
UPDATE
Here's a link to ESPN's coverage of the game. Soccer reporting is very different from, say, basketball or football reporting. It's kind of old-fashioned, reminds me of the way old Silver Chips game coverages from the 60s sound. "The speedy former Arsenal man was by far the Reds most effective performer and visibly rose in confidence after having one early shot parried away by Dida." Silly.
And now, back to the reading I've been doing all day (even during the game--I know! My powers of concentration are legendary...) to catch up for Electoral Systems and for my test tomorrow in Armed Conflict.
UPDATE
Here's a link to ESPN's coverage of the game. Soccer reporting is very different from, say, basketball or football reporting. It's kind of old-fashioned, reminds me of the way old Silver Chips game coverages from the 60s sound. "The speedy former Arsenal man was by far the Reds most effective performer and visibly rose in confidence after having one early shot parried away by Dida." Silly.
Monday, May 21, 2007
the second coming
Well I can't believe I'd lived to 20 years old and read Things Fall Apart twice without having read this poem.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-W.B. Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-W.B. Yeats
Sunday, May 20, 2007
been busy
Sorry for not posting in a few days, I was all fired up to write a great synopsis of the last few days, but something happened and now I don't feel that excited about it. Still, it'll be good for me to write a bit.
Thursday dawned with me throwing together our PowerPoint for the Armed Conflict presentation (the group members whose work I didn't yet have didn't send it until after I'd fallen asleep waiting the night before). Class rolled around, and after technicaly difficulties and the first group typically going overtime, it was our turn. But not only were we pressed for time, we didn't get to present to the professor because he was absent for unknown reasons. So we got the TA, who had no frame of reference for what's a reasonable length for these presentations. Every single one has gone at least 40 minutes, which the professor obviously knew, but they're only supposed to be a half hour, which is all the TA knew. So when ours went to 45 (and past the end of class, which is also common), she cut us off, and because we'd started late to begin with, we had to RACE through. I don't think we did as well as we should have or could have. Oh well, at least the essay part can make up for it somewhat (due this Thursday). That night, I went out with Jesse, a Wisconsin kid who was in my group, and some Michigan peeps to Budapest, a microbrewery on Bilbao. We cut up and laughed about how badly the presentation was gone and riffed on Borat and had a good time. Friday I spent reading and internetsing, before heading over to some other Michigan kids' (Sarah and Laurie) apartment for the Sam Tai-organized vegan dinner/party. Which was delicious/a lot of fun. I got very drunk and ended up sleeping over at Vale's.
Woke up Saturday morning and Vale and I had a very nice, very lazy and relaxing day, watching "Lost" season two on DVD (we finished and now basically HAVE to move on to season three because season two ended, well, awesomely. I spent the night again last night and this morning went home while she went to church with Lindsay. I read a bunch more (John Goldthorpe on divergent capitalisms in Western Europe in the mid-to-late 80s...dated and dense; give me the EU, already). Pilar and Pili and Kiko and Gabriel were cooking up a great lunch and invited Vale over to eat with us. So she got there in perfect time, around 3, with a delicious wine the name of which I forget. We ate and talked and laughed and it was, I shall uncreatively repeat, a great lunch. Afterwards, she got a call from Viviana, the director of COPA Viña, saying that a boy from there was missing in Santiago and could Vale go look for him. So I went to Starbucks to work on my part of the Nigeria essay and she went running off to the various bus stations. Unsuccessful there, she joined me at Starbucks and we spent the better part of the afternoon and evening calling every hospital and clinic possible and talking to Viviana and Isabel and Rodrigo (Katty's boyfriend the ex-detective). It was very stressful, especially for Vale. We finally left because there was nothing else to be done (no more numbers left to call OR to look up online...thank goodness for my computer and Starbucks wi-fi, and went to go find dinner somewhere. After a long walk and a relieving call from Viviana saying that she had found him, totally zonked out, in the airport waiting for his flight back to the states (I forgot to mention, there's something very wrong with him--the word breakdown got tossed around but it seemed worse than that), we ended up in Patio Bellavista, where we got a very nice dinner and ate outside in the cold. Too much noise inside, plus there were ostensibly space heaters outside. Anyhow, now I'm about to go to bed, but I'm feeling kind of down, so I'm going to leave you all with another video, this of one of my favorite songs of all time, which fits perfectly every mood I have, in very different ways: "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by the Talking Heads.
Thursday dawned with me throwing together our PowerPoint for the Armed Conflict presentation (the group members whose work I didn't yet have didn't send it until after I'd fallen asleep waiting the night before). Class rolled around, and after technicaly difficulties and the first group typically going overtime, it was our turn. But not only were we pressed for time, we didn't get to present to the professor because he was absent for unknown reasons. So we got the TA, who had no frame of reference for what's a reasonable length for these presentations. Every single one has gone at least 40 minutes, which the professor obviously knew, but they're only supposed to be a half hour, which is all the TA knew. So when ours went to 45 (and past the end of class, which is also common), she cut us off, and because we'd started late to begin with, we had to RACE through. I don't think we did as well as we should have or could have. Oh well, at least the essay part can make up for it somewhat (due this Thursday). That night, I went out with Jesse, a Wisconsin kid who was in my group, and some Michigan peeps to Budapest, a microbrewery on Bilbao. We cut up and laughed about how badly the presentation was gone and riffed on Borat and had a good time. Friday I spent reading and internetsing, before heading over to some other Michigan kids' (Sarah and Laurie) apartment for the Sam Tai-organized vegan dinner/party. Which was delicious/a lot of fun. I got very drunk and ended up sleeping over at Vale's.
Woke up Saturday morning and Vale and I had a very nice, very lazy and relaxing day, watching "Lost" season two on DVD (we finished and now basically HAVE to move on to season three because season two ended, well, awesomely. I spent the night again last night and this morning went home while she went to church with Lindsay. I read a bunch more (John Goldthorpe on divergent capitalisms in Western Europe in the mid-to-late 80s...dated and dense; give me the EU, already). Pilar and Pili and Kiko and Gabriel were cooking up a great lunch and invited Vale over to eat with us. So she got there in perfect time, around 3, with a delicious wine the name of which I forget. We ate and talked and laughed and it was, I shall uncreatively repeat, a great lunch. Afterwards, she got a call from Viviana, the director of COPA Viña, saying that a boy from there was missing in Santiago and could Vale go look for him. So I went to Starbucks to work on my part of the Nigeria essay and she went running off to the various bus stations. Unsuccessful there, she joined me at Starbucks and we spent the better part of the afternoon and evening calling every hospital and clinic possible and talking to Viviana and Isabel and Rodrigo (Katty's boyfriend the ex-detective). It was very stressful, especially for Vale. We finally left because there was nothing else to be done (no more numbers left to call OR to look up online...thank goodness for my computer and Starbucks wi-fi, and went to go find dinner somewhere. After a long walk and a relieving call from Viviana saying that she had found him, totally zonked out, in the airport waiting for his flight back to the states (I forgot to mention, there's something very wrong with him--the word breakdown got tossed around but it seemed worse than that), we ended up in Patio Bellavista, where we got a very nice dinner and ate outside in the cold. Too much noise inside, plus there were ostensibly space heaters outside. Anyhow, now I'm about to go to bed, but I'm feeling kind of down, so I'm going to leave you all with another video, this of one of my favorite songs of all time, which fits perfectly every mood I have, in very different ways: "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by the Talking Heads.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
pili met tipper gore
I forgot to mention this before, but last night at dinner Pili (my host sister) told me that she'd met Tipper Gore at work when the former second lady (Al has been here giving some seriously expensive lectures about global warming) came in to buy some wine. Apparently Tipper was very nice, had a glass with Pili, said she'd send her an autographed copy of Al's most recent book (or maybe it's one they co-got-it-ghost-written?), and spent a million pesos on 12 bottles of wine (about 2000 dollars). Much as Tipper Gore irritates me because her one big cause (at least the one people my age know about) was censoring a lot of the music that I like, I think it's pretty cool that Pili got to meet her. Then again all my friends who went to Sidwell have probably met the Gores, too, but whatever. We're in Santiago, it's definitely cooler than John McCain having been the last person to sign the Pinochet Foundation guest book before me and Katie.
the sky is contemptuous of us
Yesterday, it finally rained, for the first time in almost three months. But it didn't REALLY rain, it kind of drizzled for most of the morning. What we need is a day of steady rain. The sky knows this, but instead of giving us what it knows we need, it decided that our complaints about its smoggy state were worth nothing more than spitting on, so that's what it did. The smog is as bad as before, and it's sunny today. Damn it.
The proposal I was working on on Monday was rejected by the TA for Sistemas Electorales, and I suppose, in retrospect, that she was right to. So I'll have to rethink that--I'd like to stick with the super-presidentialisms of recent Venezuela and the U.S., but maybe add Russia, or conversely study the way party cleavages break down in very homogeneous societies...something. But once again I find myself with a bunch of work to do this morning, this time for the Conflicto Armado presentation on Nigeria tomorrow. I have to be down at San Joaquin at 3 with my part of the presentation basically done. Ugh. Oh well, it's all right, I've just got to buckle down and do it, it's not that hard--I'll only be talking for like four minutes anyway.
In other news, I think Cori is going to come over tonight to Vale's with her friend Bessie so they can practice Spanish with us; apparently she learned a ton the last time she came over. Vale practically squealed she was so happy when I told her, she really likes Cori and she also really likes the idea that her home can be a place where people can feel comfortable and learn things. She's an amazingly hospitable person. And now, the Niger Delta must command my full attention. Wish me luck.
The proposal I was working on on Monday was rejected by the TA for Sistemas Electorales, and I suppose, in retrospect, that she was right to. So I'll have to rethink that--I'd like to stick with the super-presidentialisms of recent Venezuela and the U.S., but maybe add Russia, or conversely study the way party cleavages break down in very homogeneous societies...something. But once again I find myself with a bunch of work to do this morning, this time for the Conflicto Armado presentation on Nigeria tomorrow. I have to be down at San Joaquin at 3 with my part of the presentation basically done. Ugh. Oh well, it's all right, I've just got to buckle down and do it, it's not that hard--I'll only be talking for like four minutes anyway.
In other news, I think Cori is going to come over tonight to Vale's with her friend Bessie so they can practice Spanish with us; apparently she learned a ton the last time she came over. Vale practically squealed she was so happy when I told her, she really likes Cori and she also really likes the idea that her home can be a place where people can feel comfortable and learn things. She's an amazingly hospitable person. And now, the Niger Delta must command my full attention. Wish me luck.
Monday, May 14, 2007
okay, so i couldn't help myself
Had to read Glenn Greenwald first, which led me to THIS POST by Digby. Another worthwhile read, if utterly different from the Levi story.
before i get down to business...
...today, I wanted to share this story, "A Tranquil Star," by Primo Levi. It's short and beautiful and profound. Check it out. And now, a proposal for a comparison of three electoral systems, any three, followed by info-gathering on why Nigeria doesn't work. Should be really interesting, I just wish it didn't have grades attached. Speaking of which, I thought Louis Menand's piece in the New Yorker this week about college was a little weird. More on that later, if I have time/feel like coming back to it.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
happy mother's day!
As for my own mother, I send all my love to you today, far away though I may be. For the rest of you, here's a video about the origins of mother's day, produced by what seemed to me to be a very worthy organization, especially today, Mother's Day for Peace.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
pre-emergencia ambiental
The title of this post is a phrase I learned a couple of weeks ago from Pilar Mamá, and translates to "environmental pre-emergency." As far as I can tell, we've been in this state for the past two weeks in Santiago; it basically means that the air conditions have gotten so bad, due to accumulation of smog due to lack of rain, that certain vehicles are no longer allowed on the road and various factories have to cut back slightly on production, in an effort to reduce emissions. I can no longer see the mountains a lot of the time, there is instead a curtain of mountain-colored (roughly pinkish-purplish-grayish) smog hanging over the city in all directions, although the concentrated section clearly moves throughout the day. It better rain soon, because this is NOT helping my cough. Let alone the breathing capacity of the entire city. THIS is the number one argument for Transantiago--once it starts working, fewer people will drive and a smaller, more efficient fleet of buses will dominate the streets, leading to a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
In other news, I felt a big breakthrough with my Spanish the other day. In Armed Conflict class, we've just started group presentations on current/recent internal conflicts. Yesterday the first groups went (my group, Nigeria, presents a week from tomorrow), and the second one was on Ivory Coast. The group didn't do a very good job explaining the role of France in the conflict there, why the French army was so directly involved and for how long. So I asked them to clear it up. The way I introduced and phrased the question was complicated, but it spilled out completely correctly and without my thinking about the phrasing at all. It was apparently a good question, the professor got involved in the response, clarifying what the group couldn't, and then asked me directly if my question had been answered. It had, but that really doesn't matter, what matters is that in situations like that I am feeling more and more comfortable all the time. It's mildly exhilarating.
That test I thought was on Tuesday is actually tomorrow, so I should probably get back to studying. There's an absolute crapload of material (in excess of 1400 pages), even summarized (thank you, Max Ravesti, for putting together the summary group) it's a lot to review. I'm doing okay on it, and I think I'll be prepared tomorrow, but man, is there a lot to keep in mind. Next up: Peter H. Smith's "Los ciclos de democracia electoral en América Latina, 1900-2000." Here goes...
In other news, I felt a big breakthrough with my Spanish the other day. In Armed Conflict class, we've just started group presentations on current/recent internal conflicts. Yesterday the first groups went (my group, Nigeria, presents a week from tomorrow), and the second one was on Ivory Coast. The group didn't do a very good job explaining the role of France in the conflict there, why the French army was so directly involved and for how long. So I asked them to clear it up. The way I introduced and phrased the question was complicated, but it spilled out completely correctly and without my thinking about the phrasing at all. It was apparently a good question, the professor got involved in the response, clarifying what the group couldn't, and then asked me directly if my question had been answered. It had, but that really doesn't matter, what matters is that in situations like that I am feeling more and more comfortable all the time. It's mildly exhilarating.
That test I thought was on Tuesday is actually tomorrow, so I should probably get back to studying. There's an absolute crapload of material (in excess of 1400 pages), even summarized (thank you, Max Ravesti, for putting together the summary group) it's a lot to review. I'm doing okay on it, and I think I'll be prepared tomorrow, but man, is there a lot to keep in mind. Next up: Peter H. Smith's "Los ciclos de democracia electoral en América Latina, 1900-2000." Here goes...
Monday, May 07, 2007
another really good song
I'm in my last day of convalescence, tonight I'll have to go back home and tomorrow, I've got a test in the morning and it's right back into the swing of things. I'm feeling pretty good, still coughing a lot but now it's just a run-of-the-mill, throat-tickles kind of thing, rather than painful coughing.
In other news, I finally spent the last of my iTunes gift card money today, on "Dimanche a Bamako" by Amadou et Mariam, a blind duo from Mali. The record was produced by Manu Chao; he also sings lead vocals on this track, "Senegal Fast Food."
In other news, I finally spent the last of my iTunes gift card money today, on "Dimanche a Bamako" by Amadou et Mariam, a blind duo from Mali. The record was produced by Manu Chao; he also sings lead vocals on this track, "Senegal Fast Food."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
okay, okay, one more for right now
Last one, and then I gotta go do some work. "Earth Jam" by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.
guau!
Okay so apparently that worked, and how! I can't believe it took me so long to figure out how to embed videos, it's so easy. I think I'm going to try and make it a semi-regular practice to post videos of music that, well, that I like. Maybe once a week or something. That's a great start. Okay, before I get back to work, I have to share this, "Holy shit, this actually HAPPENED!??!??! WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED," moment with you all: Chick Corea, Bela Fleck and Bobby doing "Spain." I will now go rock back and forth in the corner.
embedding youtube videos
Just want to see if this works, so...here's one of my all-time favorite songs, Bobby McFerrin doing "Drive."
Friday, May 04, 2007
domino effect, take 2
In all the obvious comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, especially as regards the right-wing delusion about how the old war ended and how this one ought to ("We'll succeed unless we quit"--see Keith Olbermann on that gem), why is it that no one is pointing out that the new Republican talking point about how losing Iraq would create a ripple effect of new terrorists all over the Middle East is an awful lot like the so categorically disproven domino effect that led us into Vietnam (and Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, even Chile, indirectly)? It's painfully clear that our presence in Iraq (and Israel/Palestine, and Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia) encourages the rage and resentment that produces the terrifying and incredibly sad violence that so many people, who might otherwise be peaceful, are perpetrating there now. Their main complaint, right now, is that we're still there. Just like we radicalized a huge group of Vietnamese communists into using terrorist and guerrilla tactics against us and each other there, we've radicalized a huge group of Iraqis to do the same in their own country. It seems like the quagmire in Iraq, and the rhetoric surrounding it, rhymes more and more with Vietnam all the time.
to see, or not to see? spider-man 3
Thought the absolute polar-oppositeness of these reviews was hilarious:
Stephanie Zacharek at Salonin a lovefest for Sam Raimi...
...and Anthony Lane at The New Yorker absolutely tearing the movie a new one.
Now I've GOT to see it.
Stephanie Zacharek at Salonin a lovefest for Sam Raimi...
...and Anthony Lane at The New Yorker absolutely tearing the movie a new one.
Now I've GOT to see it.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
feeling better today
My fever has not returned today, and the headache and joint pains are pretty much gone. My cough has changed, too, it's more frequent but wetter and less painful. Also, swallowing is easier. On the flip side, I got my first bloody nose in a long time about fifteen minutes ago. Not much of one, I'm still breathing it out of existence, but it's somewhat persistent. Also, I re-read the post I put up yesterday...Do I normally make that many grammatical and spelling mistakes? I mean, what a mess! Hopefully it was just because my brain's been fried for the past few days and I don't usually write like that.
Cori sent me a Facebook message yesterday saying we should hang out, which is true, because it's been forever. I said I wasn't supposed to go outside and she wrote back this morning that maybe she'd bring some chicken soup over. Gotta love good friends. I've also realized that Blogger is time-stamping my posts an hour earlier than I actually write them, which is a really huge, huge problem for me. Call in the National Guard. Vale just got back from some errands--depositing her paycheck, picking up some groceries and some more "Lost" Season 1 DVDs--so I guess we're about to have lunch. That's about all there is to report; today has, expectedly, been rather boring and low-key.
Cori sent me a Facebook message yesterday saying we should hang out, which is true, because it's been forever. I said I wasn't supposed to go outside and she wrote back this morning that maybe she'd bring some chicken soup over. Gotta love good friends. I've also realized that Blogger is time-stamping my posts an hour earlier than I actually write them, which is a really huge, huge problem for me. Call in the National Guard. Vale just got back from some errands--depositing her paycheck, picking up some groceries and some more "Lost" Season 1 DVDs--so I guess we're about to have lunch. That's about all there is to report; today has, expectedly, been rather boring and low-key.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
i have the flu, or, there's nothing to do in san juan on a sunday
First of all, I'd like to point out that I added Glenn Greenwald to my links. He's an awfully good alternative to TF and all the other pompous jackasses who circle-jerk each other on the hallowed Op/Ed pages of the major newspapers. Really, check out those links. They're pretty good. And Salon is a much better news outlet than, say, The Wall Street Journal.
This weekend, extended to four days because May Day was on Tuesday and the universities (which means COPA, too, because it is in a Universidad de Chile building) closed Monday as well. Vale and I decided to go to Mendoza, but she'd been there a few times already, so when we got there we figured we'd go somewhere else that sounded cool and that she hadn't been to, i.e. San Juan. The town bills itself as the gateway to Argentina's own Valle de la Luna, and all the pictures we saw of it were pretty and nice. So we hopped on another bus and made reservations at Hostel Triasico (a reference to Valle de la Luna, which apparently has lots of fossils). On the bus, we saw a very strange movie called "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," which had an absolutely great cast (Marisa Tomei, John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, Donnie Wahlberg--who's terrfic, by the way--and even Danny DeVito) but didn't really work. Anyhow, we got to San Juan, took a cab to the hostel, and basically went right to bed. Not very comfortable beds. The next morning, we ate the scanty (and I do mean scanty) breakfast and walked around. San Juan is booooooring. Also, Valle de la Luna is FIVE HOURS AWAY. not exactly your ideal day trip. So we packed up and headed back to Mendoza that afternoon.
After lots and lots of calls (thank you, long weekend and beauty-salon-workers' convention--I'm not kidding), Vale and I found a hostel and took a cab there. It was the worst hostel I've ever been in, bar none. In fact, it's not even close. The mattresses were nothing more than two-inch-thick foam pads, with eighth-hand, hole-filled sheets, a bathroom that brought to mind a very dirty locker room and, if this is even possible, a worse breakfast than the one we got in San Juan. To top it all off, I'd started to cough a lot Sunday night, and by Monday morning, when I woke up unbidden at about 6:30 and couldn't fall back asleep, I was feeling like crap for real. We found another hostel, a bit more expensive (still not THAT expensive, but really, why does everyone say that Argentina is so cheap? It's like one of those things that someone says once and then everyone believes it and repeats it until it becomes gospel), and moved over there. I was feeling really bad at this point, so as soon as the room was ready (hours and hours after they said it would be) we took a nap. We woke up around 3 and Vale needed to go change money. I'd told her I'd go with her, but I was feeling terrible, coughing a lot, having trouble swallowing, aches in all my joints, and so stayed in bed. About an hour later she came back and decided to take my temperature. Guess what? 102.6 Fahrenheit. Oh BABY. But it had gone down to about 100 a little while later, and I was damned if I was going to get all the way to freaking Mendoza and not go see the prime attraction, Parque San Martin. So we walked over there, gingerly, and then walked around the park as the sun was setting. I have some nice pictures, I'll put them up as soon as they're on the computer. I needed lots of breaks. We ate dinner at a kind of crappy little restaurant and that was basically it. Tuesday morning, I was feeling much better, the fever had all but disappeared (99) and so we took another walk around the town, which I actually liked. It's interesting and has at least two good cafes. I wish I'd had more time to explore the myriad parks and plazas and the Independence Theater, which looks very nice and apparently beautiful inside.
Tuesday afternoon, we hauled ass once more to the bus station, bought tickets on the only line that still had tickets (May Day, everyone going home), and settled in to wait. The bus, first of all, was not a bus but a large van, which is apparently not that unusual for Argentinean bus lines. I started to feel shitty again as soon as we got on, and when Vale took my temperature again around 7 it had gone back above 102. Customs was a nightmare, it was freezing and dark and the guards stopped Vale and searched her bag because one of the dogs (Chile's customs is very serious about not bringing agricultural products into the country without permission, thus many dogs) smelled the remainging smell of the apples that she had thrown out before we left Mendoza. Ugh. At least they showed good movies: "Heat" and "Saturday Night Fever." We got to Stgo absolutely JUST in time to get on the last metro train. Finally, I got home.
Blah blah blah I went to the hospital today, once again with Saint Isa. I have a bad flu, I got some drugs (antihistamine, light non-ibuprofen painkiller and antiinflamatory) and an order to change environment temperatures as little as possible, i.e. "Do not go outside if you can help it." If it gets worse or doesn't go away by Sunday, it's back to the doctor. Once again, though, I was pleasantly surprised by A) the professionalism of the staff at Clinica la Catolica and B) the cheapness of it all. Including the prescriptions and the full checkup with two nurses, a resident and an attending, it cost about 60 bucks. Crazy. Anyhow now I'm at Vale's, the drugs seem to be working at least a little and I'm going to go to bed. Oh, in all my whining and complaining about how much the trip sucked for me (and it doesn't look as bad up there as it was, believe me), I forgot to mention that on Sunday night, Vale fell on one of Mendoza's treacherously uneven sidewalks and badly sprained her wrist. So she was at a different hospital this morning, dealing with that. Awesome. That's all for now, good night, maybe the next week be a better one.
This weekend, extended to four days because May Day was on Tuesday and the universities (which means COPA, too, because it is in a Universidad de Chile building) closed Monday as well. Vale and I decided to go to Mendoza, but she'd been there a few times already, so when we got there we figured we'd go somewhere else that sounded cool and that she hadn't been to, i.e. San Juan. The town bills itself as the gateway to Argentina's own Valle de la Luna, and all the pictures we saw of it were pretty and nice. So we hopped on another bus and made reservations at Hostel Triasico (a reference to Valle de la Luna, which apparently has lots of fossils). On the bus, we saw a very strange movie called "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," which had an absolutely great cast (Marisa Tomei, John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, Donnie Wahlberg--who's terrfic, by the way--and even Danny DeVito) but didn't really work. Anyhow, we got to San Juan, took a cab to the hostel, and basically went right to bed. Not very comfortable beds. The next morning, we ate the scanty (and I do mean scanty) breakfast and walked around. San Juan is booooooring. Also, Valle de la Luna is FIVE HOURS AWAY. not exactly your ideal day trip. So we packed up and headed back to Mendoza that afternoon.
After lots and lots of calls (thank you, long weekend and beauty-salon-workers' convention--I'm not kidding), Vale and I found a hostel and took a cab there. It was the worst hostel I've ever been in, bar none. In fact, it's not even close. The mattresses were nothing more than two-inch-thick foam pads, with eighth-hand, hole-filled sheets, a bathroom that brought to mind a very dirty locker room and, if this is even possible, a worse breakfast than the one we got in San Juan. To top it all off, I'd started to cough a lot Sunday night, and by Monday morning, when I woke up unbidden at about 6:30 and couldn't fall back asleep, I was feeling like crap for real. We found another hostel, a bit more expensive (still not THAT expensive, but really, why does everyone say that Argentina is so cheap? It's like one of those things that someone says once and then everyone believes it and repeats it until it becomes gospel), and moved over there. I was feeling really bad at this point, so as soon as the room was ready (hours and hours after they said it would be) we took a nap. We woke up around 3 and Vale needed to go change money. I'd told her I'd go with her, but I was feeling terrible, coughing a lot, having trouble swallowing, aches in all my joints, and so stayed in bed. About an hour later she came back and decided to take my temperature. Guess what? 102.6 Fahrenheit. Oh BABY. But it had gone down to about 100 a little while later, and I was damned if I was going to get all the way to freaking Mendoza and not go see the prime attraction, Parque San Martin. So we walked over there, gingerly, and then walked around the park as the sun was setting. I have some nice pictures, I'll put them up as soon as they're on the computer. I needed lots of breaks. We ate dinner at a kind of crappy little restaurant and that was basically it. Tuesday morning, I was feeling much better, the fever had all but disappeared (99) and so we took another walk around the town, which I actually liked. It's interesting and has at least two good cafes. I wish I'd had more time to explore the myriad parks and plazas and the Independence Theater, which looks very nice and apparently beautiful inside.
Tuesday afternoon, we hauled ass once more to the bus station, bought tickets on the only line that still had tickets (May Day, everyone going home), and settled in to wait. The bus, first of all, was not a bus but a large van, which is apparently not that unusual for Argentinean bus lines. I started to feel shitty again as soon as we got on, and when Vale took my temperature again around 7 it had gone back above 102. Customs was a nightmare, it was freezing and dark and the guards stopped Vale and searched her bag because one of the dogs (Chile's customs is very serious about not bringing agricultural products into the country without permission, thus many dogs) smelled the remainging smell of the apples that she had thrown out before we left Mendoza. Ugh. At least they showed good movies: "Heat" and "Saturday Night Fever." We got to Stgo absolutely JUST in time to get on the last metro train. Finally, I got home.
Blah blah blah I went to the hospital today, once again with Saint Isa. I have a bad flu, I got some drugs (antihistamine, light non-ibuprofen painkiller and antiinflamatory) and an order to change environment temperatures as little as possible, i.e. "Do not go outside if you can help it." If it gets worse or doesn't go away by Sunday, it's back to the doctor. Once again, though, I was pleasantly surprised by A) the professionalism of the staff at Clinica la Catolica and B) the cheapness of it all. Including the prescriptions and the full checkup with two nurses, a resident and an attending, it cost about 60 bucks. Crazy. Anyhow now I'm at Vale's, the drugs seem to be working at least a little and I'm going to go to bed. Oh, in all my whining and complaining about how much the trip sucked for me (and it doesn't look as bad up there as it was, believe me), I forgot to mention that on Sunday night, Vale fell on one of Mendoza's treacherously uneven sidewalks and badly sprained her wrist. So she was at a different hospital this morning, dealing with that. Awesome. That's all for now, good night, maybe the next week be a better one.
Friday, April 27, 2007
keith olbermann on rudy giuliani
Saw this Special Comment on Crooks and Liars just now and thought I'd share it. You go, Keith Olbermann.
what's the capital of the united states?
A couple of days ago I got into a taxi and, unusually, there was classical music playing. My first thought was, "Hm, what's up here? This cabbie must be well-educated, I wonder why he's a cabbie." I caught myself right away in the elitism and snobbishness of that thought and chastised myself for it, but another thing happened a couple of minutes later to smack me awake even more. The guy started talking to me, apparently I look like a guy he knows who studies theater, so he asked me what I studied, and where. The conversation kept going for a few minutes, and he asked where I lived in the States. I told him, "Maryland, al lado del capital," which is my standard answer. Generally people nod and say, "Oh, okay." But this guy said, "So, near Massachusetts?" and I said, "No, not really," and he said, "So, like in the middle of the country" and I said, "No, it's on the coast, near the middle of the coast but not in the middle of the country." And he said, "What's the capital of the United States again?" I answered right away, obviously, but I was really taken aback. But this is the reality of being from the States. I assumed, unconsciously, because we're the most powerful, because our culture is the most widely disseminated, that everyone must know where our capital is, and what it's called. As soon as I thought about it, I realized how ridiculously self-centered and snooty THAT thought is. I resolved to make a greater effort to break out of the North-America-centric, culturally elitist mindset that, like it or not, I'm in.
Another recent observation: I use the word "fuck" more than most. I think this follows from my general tendency to talk about everything in extremes; either I love it so much I get choked up when I think about it or it makes me want to choke on my own vomit I hate it so much. I wish sometimes, without wanting to, that my natural tendency was to be a little cooler about stuff, but at the same time, I know that this is just how I am. Just because the idea that "Let It Burn" by Usher is the greatest song ever written is patently absurd, doesn't mean that I don't mean it when I say it. In the throes of things that I feel passionately about, or things that I've just learned, in that very moment, whatever it is IS this greatest thing since sliced bread. And, being the most extreme of words, "fuck" makes sense. And yes, I realize that I just said I feel passionately about "Let It Burn."
Speaking of which, here's still another recent observation: I have a serious weak spot for corny love/breakup songs, which I tend to get obsessed with one by one. "Let It Burn," "Everywhere" by Fleetwood Mac, "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield, "Girl" by Beck, "By Your Side" by CoCo Rosie, etc.
Anyhow, I'm going to travel this weekend, because we've got Monday and Tuesday off school for May Day (woohoo!). Vale and I got tickets to Mendoza, right over the border in Argentina, but once we're there we're going to see about moving on to Cordoba, which by all accounts is a super-cool place. We leave tomorrow afternoon at 1:40, which means that right now I've gotta go pack. I wanted to go to yoga this afternoon, too, but I jammed my finger playing frisbee last night and the idea of pressing my hands into the ground, flat or otherwise, sounds pretty awful right now. So yeah. I'll see about writing in Mendoza/Cordoba, and I'll definitely have some pics to show for it.
Another recent observation: I use the word "fuck" more than most. I think this follows from my general tendency to talk about everything in extremes; either I love it so much I get choked up when I think about it or it makes me want to choke on my own vomit I hate it so much. I wish sometimes, without wanting to, that my natural tendency was to be a little cooler about stuff, but at the same time, I know that this is just how I am. Just because the idea that "Let It Burn" by Usher is the greatest song ever written is patently absurd, doesn't mean that I don't mean it when I say it. In the throes of things that I feel passionately about, or things that I've just learned, in that very moment, whatever it is IS this greatest thing since sliced bread. And, being the most extreme of words, "fuck" makes sense. And yes, I realize that I just said I feel passionately about "Let It Burn."
Speaking of which, here's still another recent observation: I have a serious weak spot for corny love/breakup songs, which I tend to get obsessed with one by one. "Let It Burn," "Everywhere" by Fleetwood Mac, "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield, "Girl" by Beck, "By Your Side" by CoCo Rosie, etc.
Anyhow, I'm going to travel this weekend, because we've got Monday and Tuesday off school for May Day (woohoo!). Vale and I got tickets to Mendoza, right over the border in Argentina, but once we're there we're going to see about moving on to Cordoba, which by all accounts is a super-cool place. We leave tomorrow afternoon at 1:40, which means that right now I've gotta go pack. I wanted to go to yoga this afternoon, too, but I jammed my finger playing frisbee last night and the idea of pressing my hands into the ground, flat or otherwise, sounds pretty awful right now. So yeah. I'll see about writing in Mendoza/Cordoba, and I'll definitely have some pics to show for it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
i started tutoring
Not for money...of course...that would be illegal...Anyhow I went up to La Dehesa on Saturday morning to give my first lesson to Ricardo and Daniela. It went pretty well, although I didn't really know what to expect in terms of their material or what they need to work on. This weekend I will be much better prepared. I ate lunch there and then spent the rest of Saturday, through to Sunday morning, at the Diazes, hanging out with Rocío and Juanita and Wence and Paloma. We watched "Mississippi Burning," which was pretty good but left me with a very different feeling than I think it was trying to give. The way the story is told, the end is supposed to feel like a victory for Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman and the forces of light, but I couldn't help but feel the smallness and futility of their efforts in the grander scheme of things.
There was a small earthquake here on Sunday morning around 6:30, but it didn't even wake me up. Apparently, however, I am a freak about earthquakes, because I never feel them and everyone always shakes their heads at my insensitivity. Scott, a guy who had played frisbee with us for months while he was working at NESsT, had a goodbye brunch at Starbucks on Sunday. It was good to see him again, he'd been traveling for a while. It foreshadowed a little my own leaving. His girlfriend, Sarah, who also plays frisbee, told us that night that it was really hard for him and that he cried in the airpot. On that note, frisbee on Sunday was fantastic. It's been really chilly the past couple of days, which made for perfect frisbee weather up at Nido de Aguilas. I played really well, for once, although my team lost for the second week in a row due in large part to the overconfidence of a couple of new people. A friend of Rene-the-ridiculously-good-Venezuelan played and definitely got it into his head that he was capable of long-distance endzone puts, which was frustrating for Rene and Franco and me, who can actually throw. But hey, it's pickup, we barely keep score, and it was still really fun. Tortilla Factory afterwards was delicious as usual and then Sarah came from the airport and her, Felipe, Carlos and I went out for a beer and played 20 questions to keep her spirits up. I got home around 10:45, showered, ate a bit of dinner and came over to Vale's. She had gotten back a couple of hours earlier from the COPA La Serena trip, which she had been dreading but ended up enjoying. I guess that's how those things usually work out.
Today was uneventful, except that I'm a jackass and didn't get to yoga because I took a nap and set my alarm for 16:45 instead of 18:45, intending, obviously, to get up at 6:45. So I woke up at 8:35 on my own instead of 6:45. Real smart, Luke. And now I'm going to do some reading and go to sleep. Good times. Good night.
There was a small earthquake here on Sunday morning around 6:30, but it didn't even wake me up. Apparently, however, I am a freak about earthquakes, because I never feel them and everyone always shakes their heads at my insensitivity. Scott, a guy who had played frisbee with us for months while he was working at NESsT, had a goodbye brunch at Starbucks on Sunday. It was good to see him again, he'd been traveling for a while. It foreshadowed a little my own leaving. His girlfriend, Sarah, who also plays frisbee, told us that night that it was really hard for him and that he cried in the airpot. On that note, frisbee on Sunday was fantastic. It's been really chilly the past couple of days, which made for perfect frisbee weather up at Nido de Aguilas. I played really well, for once, although my team lost for the second week in a row due in large part to the overconfidence of a couple of new people. A friend of Rene-the-ridiculously-good-Venezuelan played and definitely got it into his head that he was capable of long-distance endzone puts, which was frustrating for Rene and Franco and me, who can actually throw. But hey, it's pickup, we barely keep score, and it was still really fun. Tortilla Factory afterwards was delicious as usual and then Sarah came from the airport and her, Felipe, Carlos and I went out for a beer and played 20 questions to keep her spirits up. I got home around 10:45, showered, ate a bit of dinner and came over to Vale's. She had gotten back a couple of hours earlier from the COPA La Serena trip, which she had been dreading but ended up enjoying. I guess that's how those things usually work out.
Today was uneventful, except that I'm a jackass and didn't get to yoga because I took a nap and set my alarm for 16:45 instead of 18:45, intending, obviously, to get up at 6:45. So I woke up at 8:35 on my own instead of 6:45. Real smart, Luke. And now I'm going to do some reading and go to sleep. Good times. Good night.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
oh man
I was lucky and privileged enough to be watching this live... In case you're not a big soccer fan, and I'm guessing most of the people who read this blog aren't, you may not have heard about it, but Lionel Messi, a young (my age) Argentine superstar who plays for FC Barcelona, scored a goal against Getafe the other day that was almost identical to his compatriot Diego Maradona's "Goal of the Century" against England in the 1986 World Cup. Watch and be awed. Absolutely incredible.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
i don't like when everyone uses the american flag to make themselves look dignified and important
It's just kind of tacky and stupid. The American flag should not be associated with any organization other than the United States of America. Come up with your own damn logo. I am crotchety and 176 years old. Also, no one, but no one, should have the name of their college or any associated logo tattooed onto their body. There is literally nothing tackier, except maybe the logo of a professional sports team. Except those badasses in BA who have the Boca Juniors logo on their biceps or something. That's cool, if a little insane. There's a reason the Boca/River games have 20-foot fences and huge dry moats surrounding the field.
Anyhow, life is going swimmingly. I had a good weekend...I went up to Cecilia and Rodrigo's house, had a good time with them and Vale. On Sunday morning Vale and I hiked up a big hill way up there with great views, cows and horses and even a hawk that flew really close to us as we were climbing. I tried to get a picture but, well, it's a fast-moving bird. Here's a couple views from the walk:
After frisbee on Sunday, a bunch of us went and got smoothies and then when I got home, I showered, ate Kiko's delicious cazuela and fell asleep with my clothes and the lights on on top of my blankets at about 11. Yesterday I didn't have class, but I read a lot all day and then went to yoga, which was great. Today was uneventful, except for the first clause of the next sentence; I went to class, which was cancelled, waited around for my other class, which was kind of boring, then came to Vale's, where I've been ever since. I talked to Mom and Dad, which was great, and left a happy birthday message for Uncle John, and soon I'm going to go home and eat and go to bed. These sentences are dry because Vale's watching "Friends" and it's really distracting. Oh man. That's enough for now, I promise a more interesting post soon.
Anyhow, life is going swimmingly. I had a good weekend...I went up to Cecilia and Rodrigo's house, had a good time with them and Vale. On Sunday morning Vale and I hiked up a big hill way up there with great views, cows and horses and even a hawk that flew really close to us as we were climbing. I tried to get a picture but, well, it's a fast-moving bird. Here's a couple views from the walk:
After frisbee on Sunday, a bunch of us went and got smoothies and then when I got home, I showered, ate Kiko's delicious cazuela and fell asleep with my clothes and the lights on on top of my blankets at about 11. Yesterday I didn't have class, but I read a lot all day and then went to yoga, which was great. Today was uneventful, except for the first clause of the next sentence; I went to class, which was cancelled, waited around for my other class, which was kind of boring, then came to Vale's, where I've been ever since. I talked to Mom and Dad, which was great, and left a happy birthday message for Uncle John, and soon I'm going to go home and eat and go to bed. These sentences are dry because Vale's watching "Friends" and it's really distracting. Oh man. That's enough for now, I promise a more interesting post soon.
Monday, April 16, 2007
the 200th post
So I've reached my third hundred, exactly 340 days, six hours and 41 minutes after my first post. I've decided to use this post to put up a few way overdue pictures of my new (now not-so-new) house and family, along with a really funny thing I found online thanks to Bill Simmons' blog The Sports Guy. First that:
Step 1: Go to Google Maps
Step 2: Click on "Get directions"
Step 3: Put "New York, NY" for the starting point and "Paris, France" for the ending point
Step 4: Scroll down to step 23
Now, here are the pictures:
View from across the street. My window is the open one on the second floor.
Kitchen
Living room
From left: Shiva, Pili, Gabriel, Kiko, Pilar. The females live in the house, the males are serious pololos. But they're around all the time and basically part of the family.
One more thing, because I am a gigantic dork: the Wikipedia entry on 200.
Step 1: Go to Google Maps
Step 2: Click on "Get directions"
Step 3: Put "New York, NY" for the starting point and "Paris, France" for the ending point
Step 4: Scroll down to step 23
Now, here are the pictures:
View from across the street. My window is the open one on the second floor.
Kitchen
Living room
From left: Shiva, Pili, Gabriel, Kiko, Pilar. The females live in the house, the males are serious pololos. But they're around all the time and basically part of the family.
One more thing, because I am a gigantic dork: the Wikipedia entry on 200.
Friday, April 13, 2007
in which i hate my parents
I'm going bald. It's official. I hate you, Mom and Dad. Whichever of you passed on this gene. My life is over.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
immigration
It really pisses me off when I read something about some idiot congressman or pundit ranting about illegal immigration and how it's destroying our country. In fact, I can barely read the Samuel Huntington articles we're supposed to read for Armed Conflict, even though his work in the area is seminal and has nothing to do with immigration to the States per se, because all I can think about when I see his name is the headline "José, can you see" on the cover of Foreign Affairs. Racist, racist, racist. We're ALL immigrants, you fucking morons! Practically no one in our country has roots going back more than a hundred or two hundred years. We should be welcoming immigrants with open arms, we should be learning Spanish and Chinese and Arabic, and instead we're getting our panties in a bunch about the "brown tide" and how Spanish is going to dilute our supposedly "pure" American English culture. One of the reasons Vale doesn't want to go to the States in July for her friend's wedding is because of the horror stories her friends (including Isa) tell about going through customs as non-natives. It's shameful.
Monday, April 09, 2007
picking classes
Finally got my enrollment appointment, am trying to figure out what to take next semester. It's a gigantic pain in the butt. More on this tomorrow after I register.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
sorry for not posting this week
I've been pretty busy and also every time I've sat down to write a post I've gotten distracted by something or other. But anyhow, continuing in the theme of the past couple of weeks, I'm feeling good these days. Classes and readings are still all very interesting, although the latter are high in volume and appear to be getting more so. But that's all right, I can't really complain. On Thursday night, we (me, Vale, Lindsay U, Matt and Kelly D) went to Miles for the birthday of its owner, Moncho Romero. It was a fantastic show, including the best jazz I've seen in Chile, hands down. There were 15 or 20 musicians in all, playing in different configurations throughout the night, which lasted more than four hours, but the best was the first, the Cristian Cuturrufo quintet plus Moncho on piano and Monchito Romero on clarinet. Cuturrufo is Chile's best trumpet player, has recorded with all the best Chilean jazzistas (Pancho Molina, Angel Parra, Valentin Trujillo) and he and his group were absolutely fantastic. And at the end everyone in the packed house got cake.
Earlier on Thursday, classes ended at PUC at 1, so instead of going to my afternoon class (Armed Conflict), I went up to the Centro Cultural Matucana 100, which has ads all over the metro for this video exhibit called "Repeat/All" with artists from Afghanistan, Iran, Finland, the States and Spain, among others. When I got there it was closed for lunch break, so I went across the street to the Santiago Public Library, which I guess I must have known existed but never really thought anything of. The book culture here is nonexistent because books are so, so expensive, as I've complained about before, so I was surprised first of all by the size of the building's facade (huge). I was even more surprised--floored, even--when I went inside and discovered that the collection is huge, the building is beautifully designed and easy to use, there are computers and free wi-fi everywhere and tons of people, even in the middle of the day on a Thursday, walking in and out. I didn't get a look at the stacks, but I'll be back. I sat down there and tried to write a post about it because I'd lugged my laptop around all day thinking to get it set up to use at PUC (hah!) and figured I might as well use it. Obviously I was not successful. Anyhow, around 2:15 I walked back across the street and really liked the exhibit. Hungry as I was, I only stayed about 45 minutes, but I'll definitely be back to check it out with some more time and a full stomach. Maybe above how much I liked Matucana 100 and the library, it felt really good to be exploring a part of Santiago I don't know at all, namely, Quinta Normal. I suppose I've been surprised to find, more and more since my solo expedition to Puno in Peru, that I really like exploring and finding out new places on my own. You can't learn something for someone else, I suppose, and while it's definitely fun and rewarding and all that to share new experiences, sometimes it's better for me to just go alone, at my own pace, seeing what I want to see, with no schedule or obligation to anyone else.
Friday was Good Friday, and as a result there was absolutely no one on the street. No one, at 1:30 in the afternoon it felt like 4 in the morning on a weeknight. But Katy and April called and I went to go hang out with them and their friends Taylor and Kelly (I think that's her name). We met up at Baquedano, walked through Parque Forestal to Lastarria, hung out in Cafe Utopia for a while drinking coffee and tea and things, and then went up Santa Lucia. It was a nice afternoon. Around 7, we met up with a friend of April's from high school, who's apparently studying here, too, bought a few bottles of wine and went back to his house in Pedro de Valdivia. I just realized how many names of places there are in the past two sentences. Six. Five in the first one. That's quite a few. Whatever. I'd give a play-by-play of the rest of the night, but it really wasn't that interesting and involved a lot of different places and movements. The one overwhelmingly cool fact of the night was that I met a girl studying here who was one of the childhood best friends--and still neighbors--of...drumroll...Judy Wexler. OooooWHAAAAT?!?! And, as if that wasn't a freakish enough coincidence, just as she was starting to tell me about the video she and Judy and some other of their friends made to "Tell Me What You Want" by the Spice Girls, that song came on whatever mix was playing at the house we were at. Insane.
Today has been very laid back. I got up, ate breakfast, read a bit of European Political Economy (Polani's The Great Transformation), took a shower, shaved, read some more, ate lunch, watched the end of the Chelsea-Tottenham game (1-0, Chelsea), read some more, did a few yoga exercises that I'm learning, and came down to this here internet cafe. Good times. Vale's mom is visiting and Vale called to invite me to dinner with the two of them at 8, but it's not quite five now and I've got nothing to do but read or something. I'll run when it cools off a little more, maybe around six. Tomorrow there's frisbee and more reading, and maybe calling home. I'm gonna call that a post, and I promise to try and write a little more regularly.
Earlier on Thursday, classes ended at PUC at 1, so instead of going to my afternoon class (Armed Conflict), I went up to the Centro Cultural Matucana 100, which has ads all over the metro for this video exhibit called "Repeat/All" with artists from Afghanistan, Iran, Finland, the States and Spain, among others. When I got there it was closed for lunch break, so I went across the street to the Santiago Public Library, which I guess I must have known existed but never really thought anything of. The book culture here is nonexistent because books are so, so expensive, as I've complained about before, so I was surprised first of all by the size of the building's facade (huge). I was even more surprised--floored, even--when I went inside and discovered that the collection is huge, the building is beautifully designed and easy to use, there are computers and free wi-fi everywhere and tons of people, even in the middle of the day on a Thursday, walking in and out. I didn't get a look at the stacks, but I'll be back. I sat down there and tried to write a post about it because I'd lugged my laptop around all day thinking to get it set up to use at PUC (hah!) and figured I might as well use it. Obviously I was not successful. Anyhow, around 2:15 I walked back across the street and really liked the exhibit. Hungry as I was, I only stayed about 45 minutes, but I'll definitely be back to check it out with some more time and a full stomach. Maybe above how much I liked Matucana 100 and the library, it felt really good to be exploring a part of Santiago I don't know at all, namely, Quinta Normal. I suppose I've been surprised to find, more and more since my solo expedition to Puno in Peru, that I really like exploring and finding out new places on my own. You can't learn something for someone else, I suppose, and while it's definitely fun and rewarding and all that to share new experiences, sometimes it's better for me to just go alone, at my own pace, seeing what I want to see, with no schedule or obligation to anyone else.
Friday was Good Friday, and as a result there was absolutely no one on the street. No one, at 1:30 in the afternoon it felt like 4 in the morning on a weeknight. But Katy and April called and I went to go hang out with them and their friends Taylor and Kelly (I think that's her name). We met up at Baquedano, walked through Parque Forestal to Lastarria, hung out in Cafe Utopia for a while drinking coffee and tea and things, and then went up Santa Lucia. It was a nice afternoon. Around 7, we met up with a friend of April's from high school, who's apparently studying here, too, bought a few bottles of wine and went back to his house in Pedro de Valdivia. I just realized how many names of places there are in the past two sentences. Six. Five in the first one. That's quite a few. Whatever. I'd give a play-by-play of the rest of the night, but it really wasn't that interesting and involved a lot of different places and movements. The one overwhelmingly cool fact of the night was that I met a girl studying here who was one of the childhood best friends--and still neighbors--of...drumroll...Judy Wexler. OooooWHAAAAT?!?! And, as if that wasn't a freakish enough coincidence, just as she was starting to tell me about the video she and Judy and some other of their friends made to "Tell Me What You Want" by the Spice Girls, that song came on whatever mix was playing at the house we were at. Insane.
Today has been very laid back. I got up, ate breakfast, read a bit of European Political Economy (Polani's The Great Transformation), took a shower, shaved, read some more, ate lunch, watched the end of the Chelsea-Tottenham game (1-0, Chelsea), read some more, did a few yoga exercises that I'm learning, and came down to this here internet cafe. Good times. Vale's mom is visiting and Vale called to invite me to dinner with the two of them at 8, but it's not quite five now and I've got nothing to do but read or something. I'll run when it cools off a little more, maybe around six. Tomorrow there's frisbee and more reading, and maybe calling home. I'm gonna call that a post, and I promise to try and write a little more regularly.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
good weekend
I am happy and content. I can't remember the last time I felt like this, peaceful and comfortable and full, and it's wonderful.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
day of the combatant
Today is a big student-police clash day as kids take to the streets, just because they do every year on this day. There's usually something specific that they vaguely want to protest, but the day is actually marked on the calendar. Scheduled riots? I mean, this seemed interesting and strange in September but now it just seems stupid. This year's issue is Transantiago, the 5-week-old overhaul of the mass transit system here, that has been at times chaotic and disastrous. I personally haven't really had much of a problem adjusting to it, but I'm privileged and don't have to commute a long way every day. Transantiago is a good thing--it will reduce pollution and traffic jams in the city eventually--but at the moment it's not really all the way effective. The government still has to figure out which are the most important routes, how to get more buses on the streets in the right places at the right time, and how to relieve the crushing pressure on the metro at peak hours (several people have died from heart attacks brought on by lack of air in packed trains). But once they get all that figured out, it'll be great. People here, however, are really attached to the old system and so have little patience for the new one. So today, like clockwork, 16-year-old kids with rags around their faces are climbing trees and throwing rocks at cars. What a dumb tradition.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
springs out of an argument i had with lindsay yesterday
Lindsay, a girl from COPA this semester, and I have Electoral Systems class together Tuesdays and Thursdays, and yesterday we got into an argument about McCain, mostly about whether he's even worthy of respect anymore (we both agree that the positions he's "taken" recently are wrong, but she says she respects him for having taken hard stands based on what he believes and I say he's pandering buttboy for the Bush adminstration et al.). Anyhow, I found myself looking for some evidence today to back up my position. So here it is (forgive the lower case, I originally wrote this as an email to her).
see entry for today, march 28
The REAL McCain
the man has lost all touch with reality and also what once made him the least bit respectable, namely, independence. i don't know him, so you're right, neither i nor anyone else has a right to judge him personally, but as a politician, an elected representative of the people of arizona and a man with a great deal of power, his public behavior is unconscionable and not deserving of anyone's respect. you said he's taking a strong stand, no matter how unpopular? give me a break. it's unpopular because practically anybody who's actually paying attention can see that it's beyond wrong. he, lieberman (Holy Joe at Crooks and Liars) and everyone else who once had even a shred of dignity but now have turned their backs on our country in the face of overwhelming evidence of their incorrectness and ignorance at every turn, should resign. enough damage done.
And with that little snit, I'm going to go home for lunch and then come back to Vale's to take my online European Political Economy test from 5 to 6. Oh Boy.
see entry for today, march 28
The REAL McCain
the man has lost all touch with reality and also what once made him the least bit respectable, namely, independence. i don't know him, so you're right, neither i nor anyone else has a right to judge him personally, but as a politician, an elected representative of the people of arizona and a man with a great deal of power, his public behavior is unconscionable and not deserving of anyone's respect. you said he's taking a strong stand, no matter how unpopular? give me a break. it's unpopular because practically anybody who's actually paying attention can see that it's beyond wrong. he, lieberman (Holy Joe at Crooks and Liars) and everyone else who once had even a shred of dignity but now have turned their backs on our country in the face of overwhelming evidence of their incorrectness and ignorance at every turn, should resign. enough damage done.
And with that little snit, I'm going to go home for lunch and then come back to Vale's to take my online European Political Economy test from 5 to 6. Oh Boy.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
dream about jack
I just woke up and I'm still groggy, so I'm not sure how coherent this is going to be, but I just had a wonderful dream about Jack that I remember a whole lot of, so I'm going to write it down.
He has been sent to this school run by a real jerk, I'm not sure why there of all places. It wasn't very much like Alldrege, I don't think; for one thing, it was in a big beautiful building. He wasn't allowed to leave and we weren't allowed to see him. But somehow we got the idea that what he really needed was a white towel, which in dream land was a very hard thing to find, or maybe it was a very special white towel. So Mom and Dad sent me off on a quest to find the white towel and take it to Jack, whatever it took. I searched and searched all through the beautiful countryside (which was a lot like WV) and finally found one in this shack at the bottom of a long dirt road. I'm not sure how I got there, but I know that by the time I did, time was short. So I cast around for a ride to the school where they'd taken him, finally lighting upon a dirty, beat-up old black Jeep that somehow was tied to Lincoln, but I can't remember how. The Jeep was broken down, so the guy who owned it told me that I could keep it if I could get it up the hill. This seems like a good time to mention that we were at the bottom of a very long, extremely steep dirt road, that it had just rained and that the road was covered in shards of glass. I didn't have a choice, so I climbed in, got the engine going (the guy was already flabbergasted at this point) and started driving. The ride up the hill was really exhilarating, I just kept climbing and climbing and working the car to its absolute limit. I hit a false summit at one point, even, but when I finally got to the top I was elated and knew that I would get there on time.
I got to the school and looked for the best way to get in. I'm not quite sure how I managed to do it, but it was extremely stealthy and Mission Impossbile-like. I found myself in a kitchen-like room that opened onto an area with couches and a big TV. It was empty. There was a small TV in front of me, showing the news or something, I wish I could remember what because it was important. I had the white towel over my shoulder and I just remembered that I was completely naked the whole dream. I was all ready to sneak around and find Jack when I heard the voice of the evil director of the school, so I cast around for a hiding place, which was hard considering how open the room was, but I found a wooden panel (I think it might have been one of many) hanging down from the wall and connected to the cantilevered counter in the kitchen. There was a pole behind it, so I sat on the pole and hooked my legs under the counter and leaned as close to the wall as possible. If he came around to the other side, or saw my shadow move, or anything like that, I was toast. He was talking to someone, I think himself, commenting on whatever it was we were watching. This went on for a long time, with me getting uncomfortable and trying to adjust as quietly and slowly as possible and then settling in again, willing him to get called into the hallway or somewhere. A bunch of kids came in and sat down on the couches and all started talking. I eventually fell asleep on my perch and was having this dream, inside my dream, while I slept. I just remembered that, how incredible. I awoke to the feeling of someone breathing on my knee; I looked up and there was the director. He said, "You're going straight to jail, damn it." I said, semi-confidently, "Nah, I'll be in and out," and we started walking towards the door of the kitchen. But right as we were about to go out Jack walked in and looked at us in a very confused way. He was blocking to door, so we had to stop, and I handed him the towel. He smiled and said, "Aw, Luke, you didn't need to do that." This caused me momentary anguish, but I realized he was bluffing because he couldn't say, "Thanks." Then somehow what I was looking at was a slideshow of the City at Peace show that he'd just been in, picture after picture full of energy and color, but the one that stands out most now was a picture, from down below looking up, of kids huddled around in their CaP shirts, beaming as Lincoln, in a red baseball cap, gives them a pep talk. I don't remember too anything after that.
He has been sent to this school run by a real jerk, I'm not sure why there of all places. It wasn't very much like Alldrege, I don't think; for one thing, it was in a big beautiful building. He wasn't allowed to leave and we weren't allowed to see him. But somehow we got the idea that what he really needed was a white towel, which in dream land was a very hard thing to find, or maybe it was a very special white towel. So Mom and Dad sent me off on a quest to find the white towel and take it to Jack, whatever it took. I searched and searched all through the beautiful countryside (which was a lot like WV) and finally found one in this shack at the bottom of a long dirt road. I'm not sure how I got there, but I know that by the time I did, time was short. So I cast around for a ride to the school where they'd taken him, finally lighting upon a dirty, beat-up old black Jeep that somehow was tied to Lincoln, but I can't remember how. The Jeep was broken down, so the guy who owned it told me that I could keep it if I could get it up the hill. This seems like a good time to mention that we were at the bottom of a very long, extremely steep dirt road, that it had just rained and that the road was covered in shards of glass. I didn't have a choice, so I climbed in, got the engine going (the guy was already flabbergasted at this point) and started driving. The ride up the hill was really exhilarating, I just kept climbing and climbing and working the car to its absolute limit. I hit a false summit at one point, even, but when I finally got to the top I was elated and knew that I would get there on time.
I got to the school and looked for the best way to get in. I'm not quite sure how I managed to do it, but it was extremely stealthy and Mission Impossbile-like. I found myself in a kitchen-like room that opened onto an area with couches and a big TV. It was empty. There was a small TV in front of me, showing the news or something, I wish I could remember what because it was important. I had the white towel over my shoulder and I just remembered that I was completely naked the whole dream. I was all ready to sneak around and find Jack when I heard the voice of the evil director of the school, so I cast around for a hiding place, which was hard considering how open the room was, but I found a wooden panel (I think it might have been one of many) hanging down from the wall and connected to the cantilevered counter in the kitchen. There was a pole behind it, so I sat on the pole and hooked my legs under the counter and leaned as close to the wall as possible. If he came around to the other side, or saw my shadow move, or anything like that, I was toast. He was talking to someone, I think himself, commenting on whatever it was we were watching. This went on for a long time, with me getting uncomfortable and trying to adjust as quietly and slowly as possible and then settling in again, willing him to get called into the hallway or somewhere. A bunch of kids came in and sat down on the couches and all started talking. I eventually fell asleep on my perch and was having this dream, inside my dream, while I slept. I just remembered that, how incredible. I awoke to the feeling of someone breathing on my knee; I looked up and there was the director. He said, "You're going straight to jail, damn it." I said, semi-confidently, "Nah, I'll be in and out," and we started walking towards the door of the kitchen. But right as we were about to go out Jack walked in and looked at us in a very confused way. He was blocking to door, so we had to stop, and I handed him the towel. He smiled and said, "Aw, Luke, you didn't need to do that." This caused me momentary anguish, but I realized he was bluffing because he couldn't say, "Thanks." Then somehow what I was looking at was a slideshow of the City at Peace show that he'd just been in, picture after picture full of energy and color, but the one that stands out most now was a picture, from down below looking up, of kids huddled around in their CaP shirts, beaming as Lincoln, in a red baseball cap, gives them a pep talk. I don't remember too anything after that.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
vale got robbed
My day was pretty good until Vale called me a little bit after six, in tears, to say that her apartment had been broken into and her computer and DVD player stolen. That's all they took, apparently, thank goodness, but still past the material things it's so scary to have your home violated. I came right over and talked to her; she cried for a while and then we went to the police to file a report and now she's decided to distract herself by cooking (a thing she rarely if ever does), which is good. I'm going to stay here tonight.
This weekend holds in store a lot of reading for me, plus the Chinese New Year at the Chinese Embassy on Saturday afternoon (thanks to Vale, who invited me) and my friend Paloma's birthday party that night. Plus frisbee on Sunday and yoga tomorrow, after going down to la Católica to pick up more readings for armed conflict. I'm excited, I think it's going to be good. I'm not sure why I'm writing like this, it feels weird. Anyhow I'm going to stop there.
This weekend holds in store a lot of reading for me, plus the Chinese New Year at the Chinese Embassy on Saturday afternoon (thanks to Vale, who invited me) and my friend Paloma's birthday party that night. Plus frisbee on Sunday and yoga tomorrow, after going down to la Católica to pick up more readings for armed conflict. I'm excited, I think it's going to be good. I'm not sure why I'm writing like this, it feels weird. Anyhow I'm going to stop there.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
yoga entry, take three
Well I wrote two other posts about this but during both of them Blogger/Safari flipped out on me and stopped responding and I had to force quit and I lost the post both times. Guh. Anyhow, because I don't feel like typing it all out again, here's a synopsis: I really liked yoga, I think it will prove to be very good for me, but it was/is painful. The past couple of days have been fine, I haven't slept that well but I feel like I will tonight so that's okay. Also I know my schedule, more or less. Here it is:
Monday
4:30-5:50 Introducción a la economía política de Europa
7:45-9 Yoga
Tuesday
11:30-12:50 Sistemas electorales y la calidad de la democracia
3-4:20 Conflicto armado y la política del trabajo humanitario
Wednesday
4:30-5:50 Introducción a la economía política de Europa
Thursdsay
11:30-12:50 Sistemas electorales y la calidad de la democracia
3-4:20 Conflicto armado y la política del trabajo humanitario
7-9(?) Frisbee
Friday
7:45-9 Yoga
Saturday
Nothing
Sunday
4-6:30 Frisbee
That's my classes plus the extracurriculars that I'm sure about at the moment. I'm also signed up to tutor English at la Chile but that won't start until April, and I'm trying to figure out when I can take salsa classes. I think I'll end up doing those on Friday, too, because the free ones offered through la Chile conflict with my class schedule. That would put me at 24,000 pesos a month for yoga/salsa, but that's not so much (not even 50 bucks) and the reward will way outweigh the monetary cost. Plus my having less money than usual at the moment is teaching me that I absolutely can live on less than I did before. To clear up any doubts that concerned parties might have, I'm only taking three classes because they're worth five credits each, which makes a full schedule (they all merit it, too, I've got TONS of reading and writing and tests and things, easily equal to a Michigan semester's worth), and I'm doing all Poli Sci because I'll get three major credits for each of them for a total of nine, which is the max I can get for a semester abroad, which will in turn make my life easier when I get home. Huzzah.
And with that, I'd best get a move on down to San Joaquin for Political Economy of Europe.
Monday
4:30-5:50 Introducción a la economía política de Europa
7:45-9 Yoga
Tuesday
11:30-12:50 Sistemas electorales y la calidad de la democracia
3-4:20 Conflicto armado y la política del trabajo humanitario
Wednesday
4:30-5:50 Introducción a la economía política de Europa
Thursdsay
11:30-12:50 Sistemas electorales y la calidad de la democracia
3-4:20 Conflicto armado y la política del trabajo humanitario
7-9(?) Frisbee
Friday
7:45-9 Yoga
Saturday
Nothing
Sunday
4-6:30 Frisbee
That's my classes plus the extracurriculars that I'm sure about at the moment. I'm also signed up to tutor English at la Chile but that won't start until April, and I'm trying to figure out when I can take salsa classes. I think I'll end up doing those on Friday, too, because the free ones offered through la Chile conflict with my class schedule. That would put me at 24,000 pesos a month for yoga/salsa, but that's not so much (not even 50 bucks) and the reward will way outweigh the monetary cost. Plus my having less money than usual at the moment is teaching me that I absolutely can live on less than I did before. To clear up any doubts that concerned parties might have, I'm only taking three classes because they're worth five credits each, which makes a full schedule (they all merit it, too, I've got TONS of reading and writing and tests and things, easily equal to a Michigan semester's worth), and I'm doing all Poli Sci because I'll get three major credits for each of them for a total of nine, which is the max I can get for a semester abroad, which will in turn make my life easier when I get home. Huzzah.
And with that, I'd best get a move on down to San Joaquin for Political Economy of Europe.
Monday, March 19, 2007
i finished "snow"
That was the major event of the weekend, along with Saturday night's St. Patrick's Day party at Flannery's near Tobalaba. Both were very satisfying. I liked Snow a lot more than My Name is Red, partially because it was easier to read and grasp, partially because it felt more relevant, less arcane, partially because I reacted to it more strongly. About that last part, one thing that irks me about the way that Pamuk writes, and I assume it's his writing and not the translations because the two books have different translators, is how his characters repeatedly experience instantaneous certainty about something: they KNOW they'll be in love for the rest of their life, they KNOW they're right about something that someone else has done, they KNOW a particular scene or tableau will be with them till the end of their days. His is not the first writing that's caused this irritated reaction in me, it's more of a general dislike in the way that certain writers give gigantic importance to a look, the expression "behind so-and-so's eyes," the positioning of characters in a room. I'm fairly sure I've never had a moment like that, of profound and conscious certainty, and so I'm not sure whether I object to others' descriptions of such moments out of a disbelief that they exist or out of uncertainty whether they do or not and possible envy if they do. They're very appealing, both in a literary sense (they're quite dramatic, although they lose a little of their punch in Snow because they happen every other page) and in a personal sense (everybody loves certainty; the idea that it can come perfectly, in a rush all at once, is tantalizing). But my experience is full of uncertainty, looks I share never give me an unambiguous view of the feelings of the person I'm looking at, nor of my own. Epiphanies that I've had about myself, while powerful and revelatory in the moment in which they occur, never have any lasting effect on my understanding of myself or the world. Whatever certainty I have about myself or the world is cumulative and slow-coming, and so maybe I just resent the characters in the books for having it so simple. I don't know. Ha, I guess that's the crux, isn't it. Anyhow, I've got to get back to work on practical things like my schedule. Joy of joys.
Friday, March 16, 2007
thank god lincoln didn't end up at vcu
Well, I'm sitting here waiting for some photocopies for my Armed Conflict class and ESPN has just informed me that Duke lost on a last-second shot to...VCU. That's Virginia Commonwealth University. The Commodores, or something like that. I'm going to go gouge my eyes out with my fingernails now. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Fuck. We gotta get some actual talent down there. McRoberts is a G (22 and 12 in the season-ender) but Paulus was a bust all year and everyone else is 7 years old. We also throw the ball away every eight seconds, can't shoot free throws or play defense. K is a god, I refuse to blame this on his coaching ability. However, his reCRUITing ability seems to have melted somewhat. We still get a few blue-chippers every year, but not the REALLY good ones, the Durants (a Maryland kid who ended up at Texas--come ON ACC, what the fuck?) and the Odens. Our recruiting class is usually in tens. I mean, come on. Maybe it's the fact that everyone hates Duke and no one wants to play there just because it's Duke and they'd rather go to Carolina (just as blue-blood, but MJ went there so it's gotta be cool, right?) so they can try and beat Duke. And, recently, succeed. God I'm 6,000 miles away but this still makes me sick. Well at least the season is over and I can stop agonizing about how freaking bad we were this year. Or at least agonize a little less about it.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
roger waters
Yesterday, after I got done with my stuff at COPA, I had planned to walk home, eat a really late lunch, go meet Vale as a little moral support for her doctor's appointment (she hates doctors), run and then come home, eat dinner and go to a party that Sarah's (a new program girl) host brother was having in Vitacura. But Vale called me as I was on my way back to the apartment, saying that she had gotten tickets to see Roger Waters at the Estadio Nacional, and would I like to come? This concert, like any featuring a big international name down here, had been wiiiiidely publicized and tickets were the opposite of cheap (19,000 pesos to stand up on field away from the stage was the lowest they got). But she said the tickets were free, so I said, hell yeah! I don't really know much of anything about Pink Floyd, but who would pass up free tickets to a huge event like that? Plus, as it turned out, we had box seats. Pretty sweet. And the concert was great, too. It's not really my first choice of style and some of the songs were boring, but when the (great) band got going and the pyrotechnics and fog machines started spewing out fire and smoke and all that, it was REALLY fun. The stadium was jammed and everyone was really into it (except where we were, but I guess that's generally true...the real fans are the ones in the cheap seats, screaming their hearts out).
And when they played "The Wall," Waters brought a bunch of schoolkids, maybe 10 or 12 years old, onto the stage to dance and sing the chorus. THAT was a highlight. Another one, from earlier, was a song that he'd written recently about the Middle East and American/British policies there, which was very moving. It was based on his experience as a 17-year-old traveling across Europe and into Lebanon, where he was taken in by a family just outside Beirut for a time; he wondered in the song what had happened to them and he wished them well. Still another came at the end of that song: as it was reaching its climax they brought out a HUGE pig balloon with socialist and anti-Bush slogans on it, and "Victor Jara" in big letters, which got a gigantic reaction from the crowd (for those of you unaware, Victor Jara was an important member of the Nueva Canción movement in Chile and across Latin America; he was captured in the immediate aftermath of the 1973 coup here, taken to the Estadio Nacional and, along with thousands of others, tortured and killed--he's a pretty big hero here). After parading the balloon around the stadium it was cut loose and flew away into the night. Kick ASS!
So anyhow that was pretty exciting. And now I'm back in San Joaquin, having arrived for an 11:30 class only to find it postponed for the third day in four. But I've got another class that I'm sure starts when and where the book says, at 3 just across the lawn here. After that, it's COPA office, frisbee, and then finally, FINALLY, Borat. Oh my lord, I can't wait.
And when they played "The Wall," Waters brought a bunch of schoolkids, maybe 10 or 12 years old, onto the stage to dance and sing the chorus. THAT was a highlight. Another one, from earlier, was a song that he'd written recently about the Middle East and American/British policies there, which was very moving. It was based on his experience as a 17-year-old traveling across Europe and into Lebanon, where he was taken in by a family just outside Beirut for a time; he wondered in the song what had happened to them and he wished them well. Still another came at the end of that song: as it was reaching its climax they brought out a HUGE pig balloon with socialist and anti-Bush slogans on it, and "Victor Jara" in big letters, which got a gigantic reaction from the crowd (for those of you unaware, Victor Jara was an important member of the Nueva Canción movement in Chile and across Latin America; he was captured in the immediate aftermath of the 1973 coup here, taken to the Estadio Nacional and, along with thousands of others, tortured and killed--he's a pretty big hero here). After parading the balloon around the stadium it was cut loose and flew away into the night. Kick ASS!
So anyhow that was pretty exciting. And now I'm back in San Joaquin, having arrived for an 11:30 class only to find it postponed for the third day in four. But I've got another class that I'm sure starts when and where the book says, at 3 just across the lawn here. After that, it's COPA office, frisbee, and then finally, FINALLY, Borat. Oh my lord, I can't wait.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
mid-week
So classes have been really frustrating so far, which isn't exactly fun. I went to Armed Conflict yesterday, which I think I'll really like (the professor, Andreas Feldmann, is REALLY smart and interesting--Sarah, he taught at U Chicago--and the content is great) but put me in a really bad mood yesterday. I got into the lecture, raised my hand, tried to contribute and was first laughed at for offering Silver Spring as a place with gangs, just because no one has heard of it except the girl in the front row who went to Einstein. You dumbass motherfuckers, just because you haven't heard of a place doesn't mean it doesn't legitimately have gangs. Assholes. And then got incredibly frustrated when the professor asked why organized crime violence doesn't count as "armed conflict" under the definition he gave, called on me, totally misinterpreted my response and did not provide me much of an opportunity to rephrase or defend myself, called on someone else, who gave the EXACT response I'd just given but better phrased and was praised by the professor. Ugh. I had smoke coming out of my ears even 30 minutes later when I walked into the COPA office and scared Vale and Andrew by giving the rant I just gave you, but in Spanish, at high volume, with gestures. Also, I'm not bitter. Well, okay, maybe a twinge, but more than anything I'm just happy to have found a class that provokes me like that, I think it'll be really challenging. Hurray.
So now I'm in the COPA office, about to meet with Isa about my schedule so I can figure out what the hell I'm going to do now with all the reschedulings and classes that I thought would be easy but are really hard and blahzee blahzee blah. Also, I've gotten so used to typing on Spanish-language keyboards that now, to type an apostrophe, I type "-". I-d like to say I-ve got more to write, but I don-t. Actually I probably do, but it's meeting time. Peace.
So now I'm in the COPA office, about to meet with Isa about my schedule so I can figure out what the hell I'm going to do now with all the reschedulings and classes that I thought would be easy but are really hard and blahzee blahzee blah. Also, I've gotten so used to typing on Spanish-language keyboards that now, to type an apostrophe, I type "-". I-d like to say I-ve got more to write, but I don-t. Actually I probably do, but it's meeting time. Peace.
Monday, March 12, 2007
another reason to miss michigan
Is that there, at least they don't change the schedule of a class and not tell you. I went to a class this morning--Foreign Relations of the E.U.--waited around the room for a while, no one showed up, went to the Poli Sci office and was told that the class had been moved to the same time tomorrow, exactly conflicting with at least two other classes in the department, one of which I want to take. Yayyyy. Also went to Written Culture today, which sounded like a gimme class from the title but actually turns out to be for advanced linguistics students. Really interesting, but complicated enough in English, I think. Oy. I forgot how much of a pain scheduling is down here.
Friday, March 09, 2007
ups and downs
Well this week was kind of strange. Things have been going really well in Chile: I like my family and house, except for the lack of internet; I've been getting lots of exercise running and playing frisbee and I feel like I'm becoming more a part of the frisbee crowd than I got to last semester just because I'm in the group memory now and I'm going regularly and playing hard; I've started visiting and registering for classes, and I've got two set that I'm excited about: Armed conflict and the politics of humanitarian work and Contemporary Chilean literature. I think I'll have my schedule wrapped up by the end of next weekend, including English teaching and possible yoga classes (!) and frisbee and all that. This looks like a busy semester, which makes me happy.
On the other hand, things at home haven't been going to so well. I finally got to talk to Jack and Mom (and Lincoln, too, in RI), which was great.
Today I'm going to hang out in the office for a little while, even though Airlie is in the other room YELLING into her computer on Skype, making use of the free internet, then hopefully go up to Las Condes to a track I saw there to run some more. I've fallen in love with running, I just hope I can keep it up. It'll be easier if I can find a stopwatch to use today so I can time myself and thus be able to set some goals. Also there's a 10k on April 1 that I want to run. I'm sure I could do one this instant, but my time wouldn't be that great, I'd like to run it in 45 minutes (a 7:15 mile pace). That might be a little lofty given my current physical state, but I can dream, can't I? In other news, I finally took some pictures of my new house, which I'll get up as soon as I add one of the outside and of the Pilars themselves and upload the lot.
On the other hand, things at home haven't been going to so well. I finally got to talk to Jack and Mom (and Lincoln, too, in RI), which was great.
Today I'm going to hang out in the office for a little while, even though Airlie is in the other room YELLING into her computer on Skype, making use of the free internet, then hopefully go up to Las Condes to a track I saw there to run some more. I've fallen in love with running, I just hope I can keep it up. It'll be easier if I can find a stopwatch to use today so I can time myself and thus be able to set some goals. Also there's a 10k on April 1 that I want to run. I'm sure I could do one this instant, but my time wouldn't be that great, I'd like to run it in 45 minutes (a 7:15 mile pace). That might be a little lofty given my current physical state, but I can dream, can't I? In other news, I finally took some pictures of my new house, which I'll get up as soon as I add one of the outside and of the Pilars themselves and upload the lot.
Monday, March 05, 2007
finally posting again
Ugh, I've gotta get internet at home, for whatever reason blogger takes millenia to load at internet cafes. Blech. Anyhow, I just finished up my reorientation with Isa and now I'm back in the office with a bunch of program kids all planning their schedules. I should also start doing that soon, because classes started today in la Chile. Wednesday in Catolica. Diego Portales varies but I don't think I'll be taking anything there anyway. Things have been going really well otherwise. I'm adjusting to my new apartment and family pretty well, and the food is really good, which helps. Fruit salad with yogurt and granola plus toast and honey for breakfast every morning. Mmmmm. Also I played frisbee again yesterday for the second time since I fell and it was amazing. I'm in bad shape but just running around and competing feels unreal, even if I get beat deep sometimes. I'm going to start running again soon, maybe today, and I want to start taking either pilates classes or yoga classes, depending on which family I want to please, the Díazes (Dur's old family, whose eldest son owns a pilates studio) or the Santeliceses (my current family, whose oldest son is a yoga teacher at the swankiest yoga school in Chile and told me to call up his friend who just opened his own school and would be a lot cheaper).
I saw Kelly Anne and Fred last weekend at her house's good-bye cookout, which was so much fun. Great food and lots of drinking and ping-pong and new people, and Cori. Good times. This weekend was very relaxed, I finished My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (verdict: I understand that it's beautiful and profound and complicated, but I found it tedious at times and my overall impression is that it's a great book, but not one that I could gain anything extra from by re-reading it in 10 or 20 or 30 years), and started on Neruda's The Heights of Machu Picchu, and went up to Rodrigo and Cecelia's yesterday to have lunch and play Scrabble (which I again won, thank you very much, I'm now 4-1 against native Spanish speakers playing in Spanish). I hung out with Anita on Saturday, just taking it easy and passing time with her; she left for BA yesterday. So anyhow life is going pretty swimmingly at the moment, and I'll try to post more regularly (my eternal promise to myself and whoever reads this thing, but I do mean it every time) as classes and activities start falling into place. Bye for now.
I saw Kelly Anne and Fred last weekend at her house's good-bye cookout, which was so much fun. Great food and lots of drinking and ping-pong and new people, and Cori. Good times. This weekend was very relaxed, I finished My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (verdict: I understand that it's beautiful and profound and complicated, but I found it tedious at times and my overall impression is that it's a great book, but not one that I could gain anything extra from by re-reading it in 10 or 20 or 30 years), and started on Neruda's The Heights of Machu Picchu, and went up to Rodrigo and Cecelia's yesterday to have lunch and play Scrabble (which I again won, thank you very much, I'm now 4-1 against native Spanish speakers playing in Spanish). I hung out with Anita on Saturday, just taking it easy and passing time with her; she left for BA yesterday. So anyhow life is going pretty swimmingly at the moment, and I'll try to post more regularly (my eternal promise to myself and whoever reads this thing, but I do mean it every time) as classes and activities start falling into place. Bye for now.
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