[Block to Writer's Block: Jack]
Soundtrack:
Consequence – The Notwist
What New York Used To Be – The Kills
Glow – UNKLE
Right Round – Flo Rida
The Sun Ain’t Shining No More – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
[ - Earlier text exchange -
J: How was NYU?
K: Interesting. People were one-dimensional so far, but teachers were nice and one of them was really fucking cool. I've already made a piece that I love. Far better than the class, though, was the neighborhood. It was magnificent. I explored today for an hour and I wasn't even with a friend. Can't wait to hang out there on Saturdays now]
Yeah, I loved it.
Oh my god the NEIGHBORHOOD. You know those adorable little bookshops you read about in the old classics and in modern magazines where vintage is synonymous with cool? Okay, no, you don’t, but I do. At least, now I do. I’ve been IN one of them.
I think it was called Mark’s Bookshop. Apparently I’m getting worse and worse at remembering names, but I sure as hell remember where it was and what it looked like. Obviously I was unable to resist the pull (the last time I went to a bookstore that wasn’t Barnes & Noble was in Aspen, Colorado, 200…6?), so the natural impulse was to walk in, whereupon I saw a stack of The Onion newspapers before I’d so much as opened the second door. Instant credibility!
Ahhhhh, the smell, the setup. Sprawling rows of books in totally uncoordinated sizes oozed with a downtown charm that made Barnes & Noble seem as despicably chain-store-y as McDonald’s. It was, well, magnificent. (I haven’t outgrown that word since Juno. Although I guess my overuse is kinda blasphemous considering she was talking about sex.)
Anyway, I digress. Ty’s been trying to get me to read Lord of the Rings so we can do a roleplay on it (for all you sickos out there who don’t understand the beauty of the art, that’s not some synonym for cybersex. Some of us actually enjoy writing in our spare time). He even read the greater portion of the first chapter of the Hobbit to me over the phone, which was–well–<insert a word of accolade that does NOT start with an m and end with a t. What’s wrong with my mental thesaurus today?!> (This is the part where I stop sounding like I’m talking to Jack. Jack, if you’re reading this, which you most likely are not, I’m sorry–NO! Bad! Don’t you dare even THINK ‘don’t apologize’!) I figured I should reward such effort with, well, some kind of result. So I looked for the books. Tolkien. Not Ziegesar. Mark was bound to have it.
Horror of horrors! It didn’t. Or at least, I couldn’t find it. It went from, like, Till-something to Tolstoy. Straight to Tolstoy. Nevertheless, I had to resist the urge to make a purchase–not having read “War and Peace” let alone “Anna Karenina” is arguably even more blasphemous than using an adjective originally intended for sex to describe everything that is pleasurable in life. But it was too high up and I was too lazy to clamber clumsily on top of the stool (even though it was, like, right in front of me) in my polka-dotted black skirt and Henri Mendel graffiti boots, so I managed to walk away. Watchmen, however, was considerably more difficult to resist. I am not a comic/manga person–never have been–but after seeing that movie, I simply can’t pass it up. However, the scrooge within prevailed and I managed to leave it under the “Urban – NYC” category (which, by the way, makes no sense to me–what was it doing there?)
Scrooge or no scrooge, I still didn’t manage to walk out of there empty-handed; the March 2009 edition and consequently my first copy of Nylon magazine (cover: Kristen Stewart) accompanied me, and is now spread before me on my desk. For all of you Twihaters who will instantly condemn her for being involved with the franchise, I suggest you read the comments, in which I’ll post an excerpt from the article (I think she says ‘fucking’ even more than I do). Okay, so at $3.99, it had a hefty recession price, but fo’ serious this shit is beautiful. It makes my prized Teen Vogue/Allure subscription seem like Chiclets. And it also provided resistance power when I walked past two Starbucks in, what, three consecutive minutes? So technically I saved a buck and prevented excess calorie consumption.
Literature is good for the soul.
-Later-
I wrote that much about a bookstore? No wonder I never get any blogging done.
The remainder of my day went downhill from there, sadly, and I’m too exhausted to go into detail. I discovered heaven in Kmart, sat outside for an hour and slept outside for another while John Liu announced he was running for City Controller (in addition to seething in silence as Falun Gong staged another pointless, illegal protest that made me want to get on my tiny American feet and hurl profanity-laced sentences brimming with intimidatingly advanced vocabulary at their poorly educated faces), received the April issue of Teen Vogue, went out to dinner, had a lemon lollipop, procrastinated, and had an intriguing conversation with the subject of this blog whom I am now leaving the computer to call.
I love run-on sentences.
- End of Day 7 –
P.S. The weather today (upwards of 60 degrees) made me
My latest musical fixation has come in the form of a brand that’s somewhere between R&B/Soul and rock. This fusion (the successful versions of it, at least) usually takes the form of an R&B singer over an insane guitar backdrop.
SOME EXAMPLES -
One 2 Many (London) = love.love.love. background. love.
Only U (Ashanti) = One-hit, guitariffic <- [just coined that term] wonder. Not insulting Ashanti’s career, but this is just so much better than anything else she’s done. The magic starts at 0:24.
KEVIN RUDOLF. Yes, the artist in general. Listen to: In The City, Let It Rock
Of course, my favorite genre-hopper has to be Timbaland. Is there anything he hasn’t attempted to merge?
I’m still trying to decide whether Prom Queen is unbelievably innovative or a three-minute-forty-two-second load of crap.
Being the audiophile that I am, I’ll continue looking for more priceless shit in the form of soulrock. As should you. So, you know, when you find it, you can get your ass on AIM and send it to me.
Ed Westwick is my pick of the Holy Trinity (Penn+Chace+Ed) because, besides catering to my not-so-secret bad boy complex, he has actual substance. Might I add, delicious substance. Not that Penn and Chace lack it, but when you add substance to Ed’s X factor you get an eclipse, so to speak.
I kid you not; this link isn’t just about providing you all with some fabulous eye candy. Do you hear the words this man omits?! There’s nothing better for the romantic (and/or animalistic) palette than an intellectual, well-spoken, brutally talented artist wrapped in one smokin’ hot package with, of course, the essential and supersexy foreign accent.
“I just wanted to let people see some of the things I’ve seen. The book contains images I’ve taken all over the world.”
“The way a live performance is to the studio performance; so is Polaroid Instant to the Digital Format. I only get one shot of the subject.”
http://www.athousandthingsbook.com/ A Thousand Things – A book of polaroids by Jason Mraz
Break out of the box!… or at least climb on top of it and use it as a launch pad.
Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz (the man behind 08’s “I’m Yours”) adds “avid and now published photographer” to his resume. I must admit it looks good next to “Grammy nominee”.
PREVIEW:
You know, if anyone mysteriously feels the urge to get me this, you won’t hear me complaining.
Got the link from Dr. Sato, my chamber music instructor at Townsend. Possible future project that I would love to- oh wait! Fuck! I’m not taking it next semester!
Hey, hey, now. Sixty minutes of extra sleep is a LOT.
Whether you’re finding it on a Youtube Gossip Girl playlist, hearing it while ordering frozen yogurt in Pinkberry, dancing to it in the middle of a subway station as the band by the trash can rocks the public transportation system, or picking it off iTunes Top 10… … there are some songs that just scream New York City.
Below is a tentative list of my ideal soundtrack to my city. Feel free to comment with additions; I’ll keep a running update.
NYC-Gone, gone [Conor Oberst]
Breakfast in NYC [Oppenheimer]
Hard to Live in the City [Albert Hammond Jr.]
Take Back the City [Snow Patrol]
Crash And Burn Girl [Robyn]
Timebomb [Beck]
The Moneymaker [Rilo Kiley]
Want more…?
Paper Planes [M.I.A.]
Chasing Cars [Snow Patrol]
Lights Out [Santogold]
The Little Things [Danny Elfman]
Cobrastyle [Robyn]
Cities In Dust [Junkie XL]
Shut Up and Let Me Go [The Ting Tings]
Yeah Yeah [Bodyrox ft. Luciana]
Silver Lining [Rilo Kiley]
Shove It [Santogold]
In The City [Kevin Rudolf]
Think I’m In Love [Beck]
Keep Your Head [The Ting Tings]
Faster Kill Pussycat [Paul Oakenfold ft. Brittany Snow]
Sound of the Underground [Girls Aloud] More to come.
GREAT CITY-SONG ARTISTS:
The Ting Tings
Robyn
Santogold
(generally: Beck & Rilo Kiley)
**Want the full story?http://www.youtube.com/user/musicfromgossipgirl Regardless of your opinion on the show, the music shares an unquestionable integrity you won’t find on Z100. Go now.**
Sorry for the hiatus! Life’s been throwing numerous curveballs (and way too many homework assignments/collaterals) in my direction, leaving very little time for my blogging hobby. I’ll make up for it, I promise!
But enough about my life- fickle teenage worries pale in comparison to THIS.
This music video.
I swear, elementary-school cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die-style, that the second you watch this video ALL YOUR DOUBTS; I repeat, ALL YOUR DOUBTS (translates to: every doubt you ever had) about the Twilight movie will evaporate into the thin, cold, NYC air (or wherever you’re reading this from).
So WATCH, for Chrissake (Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger). If you have crappy internet, wait till it loads, THEN watch. And DON’T x it out because the first half is all stuff we’ve seen in the trailers. The real shit is in the second half.
If your eyes don’t have multiple orgasms you still lack faith in the film after this video, by all means, let me know. I need to expand my one-sided way of thinking.
