British Halloween (where i feel like a grinch)

British Halloween is a much more quieter affair then i'm used in the States. Kids don't go door to door shouting the familiar refrain "Trick or Treat!" In Scotland, instead, they randomly walk around the city asking strangers that same refrain. I was caught by two little girls wearing devil costumes.
"Trick or Treat!" they yelled.
"Sorry i don't have any candy..." i glumly replied.
"Um, how about money?!" one of the girls quickly answered. I had a £10 note and no change.
"Um, i'm sorry i have no money, i'm a student," i sheepishly replied. Liike the little devil girl should have realized that as a student, i expected the 10 pound note in my wallet to last for the next three days, at least.
"Oh," said the girl and walked away, for a moment i thought i was going to get hit with an egg (a common practice of fun here). I sighed with relief and a bit of guilt after realizing no egging was going to take place. And feeling bit like a Halloween grinch i walked on to the library.

Lenin in America

No, not this Lenin, but the one standing in Seatle in front of some cafe for sale. Here's the description:
This 6-foot-tall, 8 1/2-ton bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin originally stood in Slovakia till the 1989 revolution when it was toppled and sold to capitalists. It stands for sale in front of Fremont's Taco Del Mar.

Candance were you aware of this! Anyway i thought it was kind of funny, i saw a photo of this from a friends trip to Seatlle and got very confused, so i googled. I love Google.

Some History for Brooklynites

Brooklyn is named after Breukelen a town in the central Netherlands. Originally named the Village of Breuckelen!

If Your in Boston for the Games...

I recommend El Pelon for your food enjoyment. It's one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in Boston. It has fresh ingredients, friendly staff, and it isn't a big burden on the wallet! So check it out. I promise you won't be disappointed.

From a Basement on the Hill

Eliott Smith's new record has come out and it's called From a Basement on the Hill - which is such a perfect title - both for the cd and for who Elliot was. I liked a remark a friend of mine made about his music - "listening to Elliot, is like having an intimate conversation in a whisper." If i had to choose a favorite song Elliot's Between the Bars would take that honor, after all the years of listening to that song i never get tired of it. I saw Elliot in concert only once, you could see that he wasn't in his best shape - disoriented and stumbling a bit - i got the impression right away that something was wrong. So when i heard about his death a few months later it wasn't much of a surprise. The lack of surprise however didn't lessen the feeling of loss and sadness. Now, i really look forward to having a new "conversation" with Elliot.

The Saga Continues: Another Narcissist Post About My Name

Just for fun, while browsing at a local bookshop, i picked a copy of The Penguin Dictionary of First Names and looked for my name (wasn't there), then i looked up "Fanny." Quite interesting because now i know how the name Fanny came to be English slang for "vagina." Fanny is a diminutive form of such names as Frances, Euphenia, and (my favorite) Myfanwy. It became popular in the 17th century, and saw its decline in the 19th century. This decline was probably due to the name becoming slang for "bottom" or "backside" the dictionary notes (you think?). It goes on to write, the name's popularity probably also decreased due to a notorious murder of a little girl named Fanny Adams in 1860's. "Sweet Fanny Adams" became a euphemism to mean "nothing at all." Now, if you know your Elizabethan English, you recognize that "nothing" was a slang term for "vagina" - as in Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing is a clever way to say "a lot of hoopla over some pussy" (makes you glad i don't write poetry). So by putting the old euphemism of the word "nothing" meaning vagina and the new "euphemism" of Fanny meaning "nothing at all" you get "fanny," a slang term for vagina! I feel so clever (and a bit of a pevert for having posted three posts in a row containing words: vibrator, pornography, blowjob, and vagina).

How embarrassing

Nothing like having your computer screen freeze while your reading a post with a title that contains "blowjob" - in the library, while a group of prospective students stand a couple feet away, directly behind you as you frantically try to unfreeze the computer.

Should I Go To This?

'On Treating Things as People: Objectification, Pornography and the>History of the Vibrator'
My inclination: yes!

Memory

When i was in high school i found myself doing a lot of romantic stuff with my friends (no! not what it sounds like). What i mean to say is, there were certain times where one would experience extremely charged moments and what would be traditionally boyfriend/girlfriend setting was instead shared by one or two friends. Activities included long night car rides - surrounded by stars, the beautiful foliage or sunset that burnt permanently into my brain. Most of the time these experiences were accompanied by great music. (Music is the second best memory trigger, the first being smell).

Recently i've been listening to Sea Changes. And this triggered a memory from the past summer - it was with a guy friend (and now i'm confused if the friendly romantic moment is becoming a real romantic moment in my memory). Whatever, here is the memory: driving along a steep night road in Haifa - Beck sardonic voice swirling inside the insulated car, fog, diffused copper light swooshing by, and knowing this is exactly where i want to be.

I Get It

While researching for a Rembrandt porject, i came accross a Dutch city - Haarlem, a city 20 km from Amsterdam. Now i know how Harlem, New York came to be called that. New Amsterdam perished, but Harlem survived!

Interesting Coincidence

My sister found a weird resemblances between the cover of Lynne Cheney's book Sisters and Laura Bush?

Blah

Like many other out there i'm sick of politics. I'm sick of people being nasty to each other and not listening to one another. I'm starting to resent being in a college setting. What i most detest is this self-righteous pricks that a lot of students personify by participating in some righteous club/society. A lot of times it is more about the actual student then the cause. When one is starting his/her independent life there are loads of things to work out - emotions and self-identity swirling in your head. Many college students take that energy and instead of really figuring themselves out put it to various causes that make them feel good, assure themselves they are a good citizen. In reality all they are doing is stroking their own ego - while wearing hip converse shoes. For them it's more about being at the protest then the what they are protesting about. Get a life (and your own opinion)!

Sweet Thing

When i am in an indecisive mood, i can always rely on Van Morrison to provide me with good music. It makes me sad that i never seen him in concert. He has been touring for the last two years and everytime he comes to Boston i can never get tickets.
There are many Morrison's songs worth listening to, for example Domino - probably has one of the best instrumental intros - it reves you up just the perfect amount. The actual song is a bit of a let down - but the first eight seconds are fantastic.
Sweet Thing is probably my favorite Van Morrison's song. What i especially like about the song is the way he says "sweet thing." It's somewhere between the distinct New England "thing" and the Southern "thang" (or maybe i'm thiking of someone saying "miss thang" with ghetto-esque sass?). Whatever it is, whenever i listen to him sing those words i don't think anyone can pronounce those words better with exact amount of sexiness, mystery, and sweetness.

Drunk

Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk.

The Machinist

Jessica's post on Christian Bale led me to the official website of The Machinist. Is it me or does Christian Bale now resemble Ethan Hawke? Recently Hawke has been looking really thin, especially his jawline. On an unrelated note, i first thought it said "masochist" not "machinist" - makes me wonder how my brain works.

Must See Movie

I saw Dead Man, directed by Jim Jarmusch - why haven't people told me about him? (Ok, they have, why haven't i listened?)
The fact that it was a Western did not stop me from liking it - and that says a lot. Johnny Depp overacts in some parts (he sometimes becomes so much the part he is playing, you realize his acting - his mannerisms look too rehearsed at times). However for most of the time his performance was spot on. One of my favorite scenes includes him lying down next to a fawn. There are so many priceless moments in this film that i am commanding you to go rent it or put it in your netflix queue.
Best line: (main character, William, played well (as usual) by Johnny Depp):

Marvin: You William Blake?
William: Yes I am. Do you know my poetry?

Did i mention Iggy Pop appears in a dress?

Addicted

I haven't been on the computer for two days. That means no e-mail, but more importantly no blogs. When i sat down to read today my fingers were shaking. I couldn't decided which blog to read first (so i ended up going by alphabetical order). Now i feel full of peoples' opinions and views! So it's official i'm addicted.

Bears Behaving Badly

Ken might have his monkeys but i have my bears. At the moment they aren't being very nice and are terrorizing Japan's inhabitants. Seems like a b-flick horror movie coming to life.

Hello?

I can believe people haven't posted about Team America yet - how was it?!

You know what Brits do better than theYankees?

They dress better. That goes for guys and girls. Usually i'm not one to harp on fashion (for people who know me - you've seen my wardrobe , enough said). However people here put me to shame. Let's start with the men. They have really nice haircuts and even the ones who don't, carry off the bohemian look quite well. I haven't seen a lot of baggy pants and this makes me happy. Have i mentioned the coats? They are lovely, make them look like the dandies they are - that whole - "i enjoy life and thinking really hard" look quite sexy.
Moving on to the ladies - here is a list:
the boots
the earrings
the short skirts
the way they tie their hair - the perfect kind of messy ponytial thingy on the side -sounds bad, looks good
When i go past clothes shops i have to remind my self not to salivate and remember that buying a skirt for £50 is equivalent to a 100 bucks, that i don't have. (wow i can't believe i just wrote that, let's keep that one a secret).

Rainbows

You know one of the best things about living in a city where it rains every single day? The rainbows that sometimes follow that damn rain! I have never seen so many rainbows - and they are not the weakling rainbows that i sometimes spotted at home but they are the kind of rainbows computer-generated hollywood movies dream about. Seriously, the other weekend i climbed to Arthur's Seat and there was a this huge arc of of colors over my head. Made my day. However you'll be happy to know i stopped before trying to sing "The Hills Are Alive" However, to let out some steam my roommate and i stood at the edge of the cliff and screamed for a few seconds. Quite exhilarating actually. It's like nature style therapy, works wonders.

People See What They Want To See

I read two contrasting reviews of Team America, one from NYT by A.O. Scott and the other by Wesley Morris from the Boston Globe. While Scott goes out of the way to explain the satire as being more complex then left vs. right argument. Here is what Morris says:

"Team America" is a joke on the notion of American realpolitik and the international disdain toward it. I don't think its members are meant to besmirch the soldiers in the Middle East fighting the war. And that Paris sequence seems designed to make you wonder whether so many treasured sites would be blown up if the war were in France and not Iraq.
.....[blowing up celebrities] is a canny way for Parker and Stone to distinguish themselves from their peers. They're not limousine liberals; they're locker-room liberals: "Team America" is doused in mock testosterone ."

I think what the Paris sequence makes you think is that America has screwed up many times before but it's most of the time it has not done so out of malice but as genuine accidents, whereas the terrorist can't claim the same thing. Also his explanation of Stone's and Parker's politics is simplistic at best, it's not like they could be republicans - no they are "locker room liberals."

Food for Thought

• So people are having a cook off at Karol's house, inspired by Jessica's chilli post. And i'm not ashamed to say that i'm really jealous. Dawn Summers has been allocated to do my job (or the job i volunteered for)! I hope that when i comeback in December/January there will be another cook off.

• I've been feeling quite inspirational in the kitchen lately (i think this is due to my attempts at avoiding real work that needs to get done). Thus i have discovered that the best smell in the world is fried garlic, delicious (and nutritious).

• In Scotland there are as many Chip'n Fish shops as there falafel stands in Israel. I have managed to avoid sampling this fine nourishment. But i don't think i'll hold out much longer.

• Edinburgh is the perfect place to drink coffee and tea (obviously). They have really nice coffee shops, and even though i have seen a couple of Starbucks store, it doesn't spoil my assement. My mood has been elevated a few times by knowing that i will be in a cozy coffe shop with my book. I haven't spotted anyyoung Frech lovers like Jessica - but there is plenty of canoodling on the Edinburgh University campus (can people please just get a room).

Am I Addicted?

I haven't posted in a while. It has been nagging me that my last post was four days ago (i even dreamnt about posting). I had a lot of things to get through this week (most of which are still not completed) and i had no time to post. Probably the real reason was that i wasn't in right mood to post. Blogger was giving me problems and there wasn't any inspitation. So this morning i headed to the library with two objectives: to finish a f%&*% useless essay and to blog a bit. Two Three hours, my blog is redisigned and updated and i am no closer to being done with the useless essay.
I feel like an addict. I just got my fix. I hope you like the new look, let me know if it's too pinkish (salmon, actually) or any other thoughts. OK, enough.

Team America

I am really sad that i am missing the premiere of Team America. I liked the interview done by Matt Stone and Trey Parker - i knew i could count on those guys to be sensible (no, that isn't sarcasm). I like their take on what's going on in the world:

The old phrase "equal opportunity offender" applies generously to this movie, which attempts to place the world's population in three groups: sissies represented by Hollywood peaceniks like Tim Robbins and Michael Moore; jerks played by hard-charging "My country, right or wrong" nationalists on the "world police" team; and psychos — terrorists, dictators and global criminals.
In "Team America," jerks need the sissies to keep them in line, and sissies need the jerks to protect them from psychos.

The article also mentions Michael Moore - it seems that Stone and Parker can see through Moore's hipocrisy as well. I'm sure the movie will be hilarious. Follow the link to see some clips from the movie - all quite funny, and checkout the "Lonely" song sang by Kim Jong Il where he pronounces "lonely" as "ronley" - funny stuff all around. http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/teamamericaworldpolice.html

Note to self

Don't start conversations by saying, "My ex-boyfriend and i....." I think referring to someone as your ex-boyfriend seems to imply that you wish you were still together or you are showing off that you had a boyfriend. I don't know, it seems awkward to say it.

So Zach Braff is taking his film, Garden State, to the international community. One of his first stops will be in Lebanon. Seeing how Garden State focuses on a Jewish (albeit secular) guy who comes back home to confront his father and learn about himself it will be interesting to know how the movie is translated - since there are few times where his "Jewishness" is referenced, prticulalry when Braff's Andrew talks about the Western Wall.

Why do they have to spoil it?

Why do good actors have to spoil my image of them by talking about politics? I just read an interview with Toni Collete (who is a fine actress) where she talks about Michael Moore and (the evil) America:

"Thank God we've got Michael Moore," she said. "The news that somehow gets manipulated and filtered through to us lay people in the world is just so insular and, in America, certainly misleading a lot of the time.
"It's just so great to have someone with an opposing voice and with a true voice."

Um, somehow "true voice" and Michael Moore don`t quite go together. Stick to acting people! Whatever your views are!

Anyway, Dead Serious has an excellent piece about Sean Penn - go read him.

Different take on Personal Ads

This is one of my favorite Esquire features- very funny and truthful! Almost makes you want go out there and write your own personal ad, almost.

I forgot my camera again.

The Queen visited Edinburgh today for the opening of the new Parliament building. Didn't see her Royal Highness (can't say i'm sad about the missed opportunity) - but saw lots of men in kilts and heard beautiful traditional Scottish music. The Parliament building itself is quite modern and was completed (as usual) late and over budget. I like the building - but many Scottish people are split over the modern design.

It was quite nice to climb Arthur's Seat - and instead of my Nomad providing the soundtrack - having real live bagpipes doing the job.

Stop and smell the roses.

One of the things that i love about living in Edinburgh are the little streets i pass on my way to University (i live in the Old Town part of the city). Almost every front yard has flowers or plants growing. It's a tradition here, for the first floor flat to keep up the front garden, while the backyard is shared by the whole building block. Surprisingly in this cold weather there are plenty of flowers, especialy long stemmed roses - simliar to Climbing rose maybe?

I'm usually tend to think that roses are overated. Although a beautiful flower over all, i like to receive and give less tradional flowers, (for example, peonies). What i find especially unforgivable about roses is that they lack a perfume - usually store gotten roses have no smell at all.

However, the roses that grow in these little front gardens give off strong, earthy smells. What all roses should smell like. Whenever the mood strikes me or when i'm not late for class i stop and smell the roses. It never fails to lift up my mood just bit, and that's all one really needs. Winter comes here faster than what i'm used to in the northeast US - so i'll be savoring the smell of roses every chance i get.

Ahem

When did the phrase "I heart...." become so popular? I used it a while a ago - but since then have noticed it's popularity sky rocket - and here i was thinking i was somewhat original and conspicuous. Not using love/like. Now "heart/hearting" is everywhere now.

Love

First i want to give a HUGE shout out to Jessica! Who turned another year older (and wiser) yesterday! I hope next year i'll be able to actually be present in person to wish her a wonderful birthday . Besides being such an incredible friend, she has posted comments on this site more then anyone else, i can always count on her to leave such gems as this:

"Cubicles are the biggest tease ever. It's too public to actually do anything, but too private to see anyone that turns you on"

She's funny, beautiful, compassionate, and can play the guitar* what more could you want? Anyway, she makes me happy a whole lot. I'll drinking imaginary krystal in her honor today!

*She's loads of other great things but it's too long to list here!

Names i Like

There are times when i come upon really cute names that half a second later i forget. In an effort to keep track of those names i am going to have a side bar for cute names. Also let me know if you have any favorites to add. I strongly hope that when my household will consist of many kiddies they will all have clever nicknames.

Randomness

*At the moment i wish i was watching Family Guy. And not anticipating the busy day tomorrow, filled with my disorganization. I also wish i had a computer in my room and not sitting at some lab falling asleep.
* Check out Isreallycool coverage of the UNRWA scandal. Especially the picture post. Priceless.
* My favorite poet is Charles Simic, i can't find my favorite poem by him. Here is a small sample. though, worth taking a pause and reading him.

Watermelons

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

* Maybe i'll sleep here?

Kilts

One of the reasons i looked forward to coming to Scotland was the prospect of seeing men in kilts. Almost everyday i have seen kilt wearing men - and i have not been disappointed. I wanted to have a counter on how many kilts i have seen...maybe it will happen. Anything is possible.
I especially like the Sporrans - the storage flasks that hang in the front of the kilt. Way cool.

WOW

Check out the Swiss Bank advert banner on the Al Jazeera site. Nothing like Arafat to sell your bank!

Via Karol and Allapundit

Who knew Castro was a dear, old, democratically elected leader?

I just came back from screening Comandante. A ridiculous take on Fidel Castro by Oliver Stone. Besides the many shots of the "Revolutionary's" hands and ass kissing that goes on by Stone throughout the movie you don't get much. I loved the Castro quote about education, saying that when he came to power the number of people who went to University in Cuba was 10,000 but now it's 400,000 and get this, "we have prostitutes here, but at least they are prostitutes that have gone to University!" excuses me? - thanks Castro, i always hoped that i live in a country where i can discuss the finer points of post-modernism theory with my prostitute! The whole movie ends with Castro calling Stone "brave" and comparing Stone's experience in Vietnam to his visit to Cuba.

Let's just say i didn't like the film. However it was the first film that i helped load and project. So that was quite exciting. And i found a sexier place than the library stacks - the projection space is quite romantic. It's weird that i find places that interest me professionally tend to co-exist with some weird romantic (ok sexual) association as well.

The projector is a magical machine and i could have just stared at it for hours. I get to do it all over again on Thursday, quite excited.

The Very Just UN at it again!

It seems that Palestinians terrorists are using UN trucks to transport rockets that kill Israeli toddlers. The IDF released footage showing three militants, one carying a Kassam rocket to a UN truck. When confronted with the news the commissioner-general of UNRWA in Gaza, Peter Hansen, rejected the evidence IDF provided saying "only a Goliath or world weightlifting champion" would be able to lift the weapon. Ofocurse the fact that these rockets come in different sizes doesn't bother him at all.

Aren't you happy that the just and impartial UN is out there serving the needs of all the oppressed?!

Reference Jerusalem Post.

Essential College Moment

Coming home from a late night of studying, i notice two men standing behind small trash dumpster, on opposite sides of the street. At first i find this observation innocent enough. Then it dawns on me why they are standing behind the dumpster. There is two things that you have to watch out when walking late at night in Edinburgh - vomit and pee.