August 26, 2009 • 5:00 am
I thought it was a lovely story, especially the part about the fig tree in winter under the snow and then the fig tree in spring with all the green fruit. I felt sorry when I came to the last page. I wanted to crawl in between those black lines of print the way you crawl through a fence, and go to sleep under the beautiful big green fig tree. (55)
For the first time in my life, sitting there in the soundproof heart of the UN building between Constantin who could play tennis as well as simultaneously interpret and the Russian girl who knew so many idioms, I felt dreadfully inadequate. The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn’t thought about it. (77)
The same thing happened over and over.
I would catch sight of some flawless man off in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn’t do at all.
That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and the excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket. (83)
To the person in the bell jar, black and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.
A bad dream.
I remembered everything.
I remembered the cadavers and Doreen and the story of the fig tree and Marco’s diamond and the sailor on the Common and Doctor Gordon’s wall-eyed nurse and the broken thermometers and the Negro with his two kids of beans and the twenty pounds I gained on insulin and the rock that bulged between sky and sea like a gray skull.
Maybe forgetfullness, like a kind snow, should numb and cover them.
But they were part of me. They were my landscape. (237)
How did I know that someday – at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere – the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descent again? (241)
Filed under: Uncategorized
December 8, 2008 • 10:30 am
Vampire Weekend. Twilight frenzy aside, isn’t that the coolest band name you’ve ever heard? I sure think it is. And what’s even better is that their music is cooler than their name.
The band brings together Western classical music and African pop for a sound quite unlike any other. It is actually some of the happiest music that I’ve ever listened to. And loved.
I downloaded the album on a whim. I had kept hearing their name over and over again from music fans whom I trust. Their self-titled CD is their first full CD and if it is an indicator of what is to come, they have a great career ahead of them. The lead singer has such a strong, pleasant voice. The music, regardless of lyrics, has such a happy “make-you-wanna-dance” feel.
Best songs on the album: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa and Oxford Comma.
Just as an aside, the really cool name comes from a movie that Ezra Koenig, the band’s lead singer wrote and made. The movie is about vampires taking over the world, and the main character, Walcott, needing to go to Cape Cod to warn the people there. I think this helps in understanding a couple of the songs (particularly the one titled Walcott and even Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa).
Filed under: Diary, Uncategorized , music, music reviews, three imaginary girls, Vampire Weekend
November 4, 2008 • 8:07 pm
Today is the most life-changing day of my life to date.
You’re lucky you have the privilege of voting. Some of us had to earn it – take a test for it, give up our citizenship from our home country. And because it is a privilege, and not a right, you should exercise it.
You don’t have to agree with my choice for President. I’ve already voted today. Make your voice heard and do the same – regardless of whom it is for.
Filed under: Diary, Uncategorized , Barack Obama, elections 2008
October 30, 2008 • 11:03 am
every girl needs at least one
Kit includes 30 self adhesive pockets, 30 insert cards, 30 “reference only” labels, a date stamp and pad plus a small pencil.
Filed under: Literature, Uncategorized , Gifts, Library, Literature, Relationships
October 19, 2008 • 11:45 am
“If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution-then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise.”
(1894 – 1963)
I miss you.
Filed under: Literature, Uncategorized , aldous huxley, drugs, quotes, smart pills
October 14, 2008 • 8:42 am
October 13, 2008 • 8:37 am
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of my favorite books of all time. Tim Burton is one of my favorite directors of all time. And he’s releasing his Alice in Wonderland movie in 2010. Here are some sneak photos of the gorgeous Alice, the slithy toves and the Jubjub bird and frumious Bandersnatch!
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Literature, Uncategorized , 2010, Alice in Wonderland, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Helena Bonham Carter, Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll, movie production, movies, Tim Burton, Tim Burton movies
September 28, 2008 • 9:16 pm
September 26, 2008 • 12:26 pm
Filed under: Diary, Uncategorized , 50 Cent, Abba, Anti-Flag, Bailout 2008, Billy Ray Cyrus, Bruce Springsteen, Congress, Dire Straits, Donna Summer, economic bailout, economy, humour, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, mixtape, music, oingo boingo, Pink Floyd, poking fun at the economy, political humor, Politics, Queen, Rage Against the Machine, the Beatles, The Hives, Tool
September 15, 2008 • 9:31 am
According to outside websites, the movie Burn After Reading is supposed to reflect the book Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors and Secret Intelligence by former CIA director Stansfield Turner.
Stansfield Turner’s book discusses the important relationship between the CIA director and the President. He brings up just how fragile this relationship is because it is strained by politics. He ties this in to the two biggest CIA errors (publicly) of all time: 9/11 and the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. How does this relate to the Coen brothers movie? I have no idea.
If I squint my eyes and tilt my head 12 degrees to the right I suppose I could see this movie being a creative way to mimick those two CIA failures. But it seems like such a stretch. When I walked out of that movie theater, having seen Burn After Reading in its entirety, I decided I didn’t like it because its only redeeming feature was that it was a Coen brothers flick. Not reason enough.
The trailer for Burn After Reading would have you believe that it is some fast-paced CIA conspiracy adventure movie. The trailer and the CIA both lied.
Filed under: Diary, Uncategorized , book to movie, Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading, Burn Before Reading, CIA, conspiracy, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Iraq, Literature, Stansfield Turner, WMD
