Paris vs New York, a tally of two cities: le fromage

Paris vs New York, a tally of two cities: le fromage

Current Playlist/Song of the Day

Baby - Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Bob Dylan
Forget You - Glee Cast
Giving Up - Ingrid Michaelson
I Would Be Sad - The Avett Brothers
Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons
No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
Caught Up in the Cycle - Nights & Weekends
Drink Drink Drink - Traffic Island
Shape of My Heart - Noah and the Whale
Poor Jack -  Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack
From California - The New Amsterdams

Yes, Please

I've previously mentioned that I am a snob when it comes to movie posters, preferring graphics to photos and striking, simple designs to cluttered ones.

I haven't seen it yet, but these re-imaginings of the 'Black Swan' poster? To die for.

Or maybe lose your sanity and think you're a swan for. As I said, I haven't seen the movie.

Five Reasons I Am Excited to Go Back to America for Christmas

1. Christmas
Clearly, this is the biggest and most obvious. During the time I lived in London, I spent Christmas away from home...it wasn't awful, really. I got drinks with friends Christmas Eve, opened presents with my family via Skype, had a nice dinner with my roommate. But it wasn't the same. I want to go home and see our 12-ft tall (real!) tree that has more ornaments than branches. I want to help Mom move all the Rudolph stuffed toys down the basement so she can perform the show while we watch the DVD at the same time. I want to eat my dad's macaroni and cheese with 80 or our nearest and dearest and then sing a tone-deaf, slightly intoxicated version of '12 Days of Christmas' with everyone invented hand motions and the kids trying to drown out one another. I want to go ice skating at town center with my sister and wander Tyson's and drink wine with my best friends while we talk about the past year. I want to do all of these things and, in less than a week, I can.

2. Hamburgers
I'm pretty sure I'm going to Five Guys on the way home from the airport (so long as I don't get airplane food poisoning again...). Do you have idea how glorious a dead cow with cheese sounds right now? And Cajun fries? Oh my. Not only are the Brits terrible at burgers, but I have found myself surrounded by a disproportionately high number of vegetarians these past few months, which only makes me crave meat more. It's definitely a situation of 'for every animal you save, I'll eat three,' and I'd like to make good on this threat as quickly as possible.

3. Clothes
I know it's impossible, but I swear I wear everything in my closet every day. Or, that's what it feel likes. I am so. very. bored. with what I have to wear...I want dresses, again. I want shoe options. I want a second sweatshirt, at least. I want options! Also, I want my winter coat, desperately. It's so very cold.

4. Perspective
I feel like I've been making fairly significant life choices in a bubble, recently. Not to say I've been making bad decisions, just been making them without any input from people who know me really well, who know what my situation is and what makes me happy/unhappy, etc. I'd like to be able to talk to my family about my academic/living plans, talk to my friends about social things, etc.

5. PEOPLE
Oh my sweet heaven, I cannot wait to see people. This was kind of covered in the first and fourth points but....my family! My sister! KaJaMa! Jacey! All the DC adventure people! My New York crew! All of my people! I have been truly lucky to meet a wonderful group of friends here, but getting to see my people at home again....wonderful. Truly wonderful.

Merry Christmas, chickens.

THIS TUMBLR IS NOW DIAMONDS

A couple of weeks ago I added the Sesame Street Tumblr to my Google Reader. Best. Idea. Ever.

A Slightly Different Song of the Day

Song of the Day

Crossroads (Joyce Sutphen)

The second half of my life will be black
to the white rind of the old and fading moon.
The second half of my life will be water
over the cracked floor of these desert years.
I will land on my feet this time,
knowing at least two languages and who
my friends are. I will dress for the
occasion, and my hair shall be
whatever color I please.
Everyone will go on celebrating the old
birthday, counting the years as usual,
but I will count myself new from this
inception, this imprint of my own desire.

The second half of my life will be swift,
past leaning fenceposts, a gravel shoulder,
asphalt tickets, the beckon of open road.
The second half of my life will be wide-eyed,
fingers shifting through fine sands,
arms loose at my sides, wandering feet.
There will be new dreams every night,
and the drapes will never be closed.
I will toss my string of keys into a deep
well and old letters into the grate.

The second half of my life will be ice
breaking up on the river, rain
soaking the fields, a hand
held out, a fire,
and smoke going
upward, always up.

On The Strength of All Conviction and the Stamina of Love ( Jennifer Michael Hecht)

Sometimes I think
we could have gone on.
All of us. Trying. Forever.

But they didn’t fill
the deserts with pyramids.
They just built some. Some.

They’re not still put there,
building them now. Everyone,
everywhere, gets up, and goes home.

Yet we must not
Diabolize time. Right?
We must not curse the passage of time.

Anatomy of a Bookshelf

Shelf 1, back row: "Making of" movie books, plays, comic anthologies/graphic novels

Shelf 1, front row: poetry, London guides

Shelf 2, back row: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Sherlock Holmes, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, In Cold Blood, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Complete Edgar Allen Poe

Shelf 2, front row: The Peggy Lane Theater Series, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Amnesiac, The Woman in White, Dracula, The Alienist, Gone with the Wind, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Little Women, Peter Pan (11 copies)

Shelf 3, back row: Shakespeare lit crit and historical context

Shelf 3, front row: Shakespeare plays (38 volumes)

Shelf 4, back row: young adult and children's (mostly published 1960's), foreign language textbooks

Shelf 4, front row: young adult and children's (mostly published 1980's)

Shelf 5: picture books, shooting scripts, theater programs, half filled notebooks

So, basically, something like 70% of my bookshelf has a reading level of 12 or younger and the rest is Shakespeare. Sounds about right.

As If That Last Poem Wasn't Great Enough on Its Own...

Litany (Billy Collins)

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

Five Videos I'm Into Right Now

(because it can't all be quotes from books I'm giving away)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

...okay, so I'm always into that last one.

And You Can Quote Me: Pride and Prejudice; Jane Austen

And yet I meant to be uncommonly clever in taking so decided a dislike to him, without any reason. It is such a spur to one's genius, such an opening for wit, to have a dislike of that kind. One may be continually abusive without saying any thing just; but one cannot be always always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

At any rate, she cannot grow many degrees worse, without authorizing us to lock her up for the rest of her life.

And You Can Quote Me: Mansfield Park; Jane Austen

If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way—but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.

'It is as a dream, a pleasant dream!' he exclaimed, breaking forth again, after a few minutes' musing. 'I shall always look back on our theatricals with exquisite pleasure. There was such an interest, such an animation, such a spirit diffused. Everybody felt it. We were alive. There was employment, hope, solicitude, bustle for every hour of the day. Always some little objection, some little doubt, some little anxiety to be got over. I never was happier.'

But tell me about it. Talk to me forever.

The impossibility of not doing everything in the world to make Fanny Price happy, or of ceasing to love Fanny Price, was of course the groundwork of his eloquent answer.

If I had the power of recalling any one week of my existence, it should be that week, that acting week.

Nay, in sober sadness, I believe I now love you all.

When I think of this being the last time of seeing you for I do not know how long, I feel it quite impossible to do anything but love you.

But were I to attempt to tell you of all the women whom I have known to be in love with him, I should never have done.

And You Can Quote Me: The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Stephen Chbosky

I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist.

I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.

And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are.

Then, I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.

Patrick actually used to be popular before Sam brought him some good music.

I really think that everyone should have watercolors, magnetic poetry, and a harmonica.

The outside lights were on, and it was snowing, and it looked like magic. Like we were somewhere else. Like we were someplace better.

And I thought that all those little kids are going to grow up someday. And all of those little kids are going to do the things that we do. And they will all kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn't.

...I was looking at the old photographs, I started thinking that there was a time when these weren't memories. That someone actually took that photograph, and the people in the photograph had just eaten lunch or something.

I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life, and then make the choice to share it with other people.

...even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.

And You Can Quote Me: Persuasion; Jane Austen

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older—the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

Gallons of River Water

Who's pumped for USA/England tomorrow? Oh, I am. Adopted country, we're gunnin' for you....no matter what John Oliver says.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World Cup 2010: Into Africa - Two Teams, One Cup
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Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Travel (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

The railroad track is miles away,

And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing;
Yet there isn't a train I'd rather take,
No matter where it's going.

And You Can Quote Me: The Catcher in the Rye; J.D. Salinger

“I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to help you, if I can.”
He really was, too. You could see that. But it was just that we were too much on opposite sides of the pole, that’s all.

When I really worry about something, I don’t just fool around.

The only reason I didn’t do it was because I wasn’t in the mood. If you’re not in the mood, you can’t do that stuff right.

That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you half fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.

The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I’m not kidding.

I used to think she was quite intelligent, in my stupidity. The reason I did was because she knew quite a lot about theater and plays and literature and all that stuff. If somebody knows quite a lot about those things, it takes you quite awhile to figure out if they’re really stupid or not.

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that’s impossible, but its too bad anyway.

If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.

It’s not too bad when the sun’s out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.

“I don’t want to scare you.” he said, “but I can very clearly see you dying, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.”

Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.