Don’t clap.

"I like them. I think they're good."

2009-05-30T14:47:55Z

Battles is an amazing band and you should check them out.

However, if experimental rock is not your thing, you'll most likely hate them. For those of you who fall into this category, here is an article about lettuce.

just a head's up

2009-01-13T17:09:39Z

My laptop's AC adapter died recently, so I probably won't be on lj very often until a new one arrives.

teleskopos @ 2008-12-09T18:56:00

2008-12-09T23:56:32Z

Sending out the first batch of Christmas cards tomorrow morning. There is glitter all over my hands, omg. ALLLL OOOVVVERRR.

teleskopos @ 2008-11-04T15:01:00

2008-11-04T20:02:13Z

Oh god. I'm so nervous.

Fingers and toes crossed.

teleskopos @ 2008-11-03T17:21:00

2008-11-03T22:24:36Z

Americans: Remember to vote tomorrow!

teleskopos @ 2008-10-29T04:58:00

2008-10-29T08:59:10Z

It is five o'clock and the morning and I have not slept yet tonight.

WTF.

teleskopos @ 2008-10-28T23:25:00

2008-10-29T03:27:37Z

Interesting (though somewhat old) link to poetry written by Obama during his college years and published in the literary magazine Occidental Weekly.

NAMES

2008-10-24T16:39:29Z

Hello.

I need inspiration.

Kindly tell me your favorite names (as many or as few as you like), male or female, or suitable to both genders, I'm not picky.

As to mine?

-Leda/Lida/Letha or variations on
-Gaelle
-Francoise
-Luce
-Jane
-Katherine
-Royan
-Aude
-Emily
-Aya
-Eva/Ava
-Roarke

-Ted
-Thomas/Tomas
-Theodore
-Alec
-Edmund/Edward
-Malcolm
-Maddox
-Roux
-Gabe
-Alden
-Ethan

omg entertainment

2008-10-16T16:50:23Z

YOU GUYS.

PalinAsPresident.com

teleskopos @ 2008-10-08T13:03:00

2008-10-08T17:05:41Z

Cannot function, too much poetry in my brain.

saw this on lacylu42's journal

2008-10-07T21:01:44Z

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified.
Apparently the "right wing" knew about this in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes.

The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by mainstream media. It can influence undecided voters in swing states. Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds.

1) Click on link and vote yourself. Here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter you know, and urge them to vote and pass it on. The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers think Sarah Palin is qualified.
Tags: politics

7 things meme

2008-10-04T17:47:54Z

promiseoftin selected seven interests from my profile, and I've given a bit more explanation as to who/what they are and why I like them. If you feel like doing this meme, comment and I'll pick seven of your interests.

Aristophanes: Greek playwright, author of Clouds, Frogs, and Lysistrate, among others. Very amusing.

Bellafea: Indie band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You can listen to them here. Fantastic band, but I've yet to find anyone else who knows who they are.

Bulgakov, Mikhail My favorite Russian novelist. I adore Bulgakov, namely for The Master and Margarita, which will always be one of my most loved books. In fact, if you've not read this book, I'm suggesting it to you now. Magic, talking cats, mockery of the Soviet Regime--it has it all.

Dylan Thomas: Brilliant Welsh poet and the author of one of my favorite poems (shown below):

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Frank Abagnale: The man about whom the film Catch Me if You Can is based on. During his lifetime he posed as an airline pilot, a teaching assistant, a doctor, and an attorney until his eventual arrest. From wikipedia: "Pan American World Airways estimates that between the ages of 16 and 18, Frank Abagnale flew over 1,000,000 miles on over 250 flights and flew to 26 countries, at Pan Am's expense, through the use of deadheading. He was also able to stay at hotels for free during this time. Everything from food to lodging was billed to the airline." This guy is a badass.

Michel Deguy: French poet, another favorite. You can read several of his poems here.

Tintin: comic strip character, children's book character, cartoon character--Tintin has had a hand in everything. Growing up, the animated Adventures of Tintin was far and away my favorite cartoon, and the books were equally fantastic.

teleskopos @ 2008-09-30T23:59:00

2008-10-01T04:01:53Z

I saw Iron Man at Target today and didn't buy it. I'm completely regretting this now, seeing that it's eleven fifty at night and I'm terribly bored and awake. RDJ, I HAVE FAILED YOU.

I've been revising poetry most of the evening for a class I'm taking, and I'm quickly learning that working on literary criticism/analysis while under pressure is fine. Motivational, even. Trying to force out poetry while a deadline looms? Fucking lame. I've never worked well under pressure in that regard. My brain just pouts in a corner while I try to lure it back with candy and promises of comic book movies.

it's heelarious!

2008-09-18T23:13:40Z

One: Coffee and I are in very torrid love/hate affair right now. It's rather sad when, in order to feel vaguely normal, I have to consume mass quantities of caffeine. I realize that this is not a particularly strange sentiment, as most of you are either students or in the workforce and as such are rather familiar with the woes of caffeine addiction. The problem is that I'm not that enthusiastic about ending said addiction, largely because I don't want to be a complete and utter zombie during the withdrawal period. However, since the subject of caffeine addiction has peaked my interest lately, I decided to do some research (and by research I mean I googled "caffeine withdrawal"). According to one study, some participants were so incapacitated by the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal that they began to completely shut down: one went so far as to cancel a child's birthday party. Holy soft drinks, Batman. I've not yet reached this level of dependency, but if I start randomly screaming at people/objects/food items, I think I'll cut myself off.

Two: I've decided to upload some songs that have been on repeat lately for anyone who'd like to add more music to his or her collection. That, and I'm super bored, and I figure I can kill half an hour selecting and uploading tunes. Win/win.

Santogold - Anne
The Kinks - Shangri-La
Goldfrapp - Slippage
Nitin Sawhney - Koyal
Coldplay - Lost!

Three: Heelarious - Makers of High Heels for Infants No, I'm not making this up. From the site: “Little girls can get a jump start on their strut and be top-models-in-training before they leave the crib" -Bobbi Thomas, The Today Show. [What. the. fuck.]

Four: araceli_maura I am going to try to mail your letter + postcard either Friday or Saturday, so be on the lookout. OMG FUN TIMEZZZZ.

omg!

2008-09-14T17:40:39Z

I just looked out the window to see a very large piece of, well, tree flying past.

eta: Said massive tree-piece is now lying directly in front of the doorstep to my apartment. It has a window screen attached to it.

What am I doing? I'm quietly judging you.

2008-09-02T19:43:38Z

My Latin American Art professor reminds me so much of Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia that I had to clamp my mouth shut to keep from loling whenever he walked into the room this morning.

Seduce and destroy, baby. Seduce and destroy.

Decisions, or My Inability to Make Them

2008-08-30T21:54:01Z

FLIST: IT IS ADVICE TIME. PRESENT ME WITH YOUR WISE THOUGHTS/OPINIONS.

Come next fall I'll have obtained BAs in English and Classical Civilization, after which I am faced with two possibilities, both of which I've been tossing about for the past year or so:

(1)take a year off before graduate school, fuck around in Europe, possibly try my hand at living in Britain for a bit, pretend to be worldly... basically get out of the States for a while
(2)enter directly into grad school, as my current university offers a fantastic MA in Education program, and I spend a good deal of time at present wishing I were teaching

I'm somewhat worried that I'll be missing out on something potentially spectacular if I don't take the year off, but at the same time, I'd like to throw myself into graduate studies and have them completed sometime relatively soon.

So, current grad students/former grad students/undergrads on my flist, have you been in a similar situation? What are your thoughts? In fact, if you wish to just talk about your graduate school experiences in general, I'd welcome your stories. :)

eta: Also, since I'm on the subject--getting your MA from the same university as your BA: taboo? I've heard very divided opinions on the matter. I'm planning on going into secondary education, and tbh, I can't imagine it making a difference, but it's a crazy world. I could be hugely wrong.

teleskopos @ 2008-08-24T00:05:00

2008-08-24T04:34:05Z

1. I'm downloading the audiobook of Kitchen Confidential, read by Anthony Bourdain himself. XD

2. I made pasta, even though it's past midnight.

3. So this photo was on ontd a week or two ago, and I saved it in my pics in case I needed a laugh. It still has me loling.

Classic.

eta: How lame is it that I have caffeine jitters from tea? I mean, come on.

Top 10 Movie Scenes

2008-08-22T06:14:56Z

Feeling rather bored at the moment, so distraction time. I present to you my top ten movie scenes behind the cut, courtesy of Youtube.

10. Pan's Labyrinth: Directed by Guillermo del Toro
The Scene: Captain Vidal catching up to Ofelia in the labyrinth, and the open-to-interpretation ending that follows.

9. Fight Club: Directed by David Fincher
The Scene: Conclusion. The Pixies playing in the background make this scene.

8.Kill Bill: Vol. 1 Directed by Quentin Tarantino
The Scene: O-Ren Ishii makes herself clear, is awesome while doing so.

7.The English Patient Directed by Anthony Minghella
The Scene: "Let me tell you about winds..." Almasy and Katherine during the sandstorm.

6.Requiem for a Dream: Directed by Darren Aronofsky
The Scene: Sara Goldfarb explains the red dress situation.

5.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Directed by Michel Gondry
The Scene: Joel and Clementine in the hallway, laughing at the absurdity of their situation.

4.Roman Holiday: Directed by William Wyler
The Scene: Gregory Peck makes Audrey Hepburn believe his hand has been bitten off by the Mouth of Truth. She shrieks.

3.Magnolia: Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
The Scene: The entire cast sings along to Aimee Mann's "Wise Up".

2.The Fountain: Directed by Darren Aronofsky
The Scene: Izzi and Tom stargazing/Izzi and Tom in the bath.

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

1.Breakfast at Tiffany's: Directed by Blake Edwards
The Scene: Holly looking for Cat in the rain, realizing she loves Paul.

omnivore's 100 meme

2008-08-21T17:29:29Z

Finally: a meme about food!

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results. (You can also go here to find links to explanations of the less-identifiable foods).

***

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. ~~Steak tartare~~
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Head Cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martin
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. ~~Roadkill~~
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
101. Limburger

teleskopos @ 2008-08-20T17:08:00

2008-08-20T21:10:44Z

I'm rather bored.

Comment and I will give you a song from my collection.

My musical tastes are all over the place, so there's no telling what you'll get.

teleskopos @ 2008-08-16T18:10:00

2008-08-16T22:10:37Z

Going to see Tropic Thunder tonight.

FUCK YES.

srs business

2008-08-05T04:09:36Z

With the recent release of Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn and all of the surrounding commotion, I've been thinking a great deal about modern female authors and their works, and while I don't particularly relish the idea of entering into a heated debate with anyone, I do certainly welcome any of your opinions or thoughts on the matter.

The point of this post is not to lambast the Twilight series itself (or its readers, for that matter), but rather to consider the caliber of writing being churned out and marketed to females en masse these days, which I honestly view as lacking. I will admit that I am irritated upon entering a bookstore and seeing the "women's literature" section filled with books about shoes, designer bags, and romance. The idea of "chick lit" has been around for a while, and it seems there's a flavor to be found for everyone within the genre: "mom-lit", teen chick-lit, fantasy chick-lit... you get the drift. And with titles such as Shopaholic Ties the Knot and She Went All the Way it's fairly simple to guess the gist of the plot-line. While I'm all for lazily reading a book on the ride home from work or during that blessed lunch break, is this really what modern women are reaching for? Really?

The issue I find with novels (or series, in this case) such as Twilight is that somewhere along the way (some) girls and women aged thirteen to twenty five stopped reading in irony and began to view Meyer's work as genuinely good--and there's a lot of disappointment to be found in that, frankly. And with such a mindset, I begin to wonder what said readers are extracting from this sort of work and what impact such a portrayal of women might have. Am I on my high-horse? It's very possible, and yet I don't feel like backing down on this one.

The point is that these books are not "bad" when viewed in their proper contexts. When they begin to be viewed as serious literature, as works of merit, and when they are selected automatically, consistently over novels that do enforce critical thinking or a deeper appreciation of the written word, that's when it is an issue. Perhaps it's the stir this week over Breaking Dawn (250,000 copies sold in a day?) or perhaps it's the generation of girls I've noticed who are growing up having never read Plath, Atwood, Woolf, Sexton, or any of their ilk but have apparently gleamed "what it is like" to be a twenty-six year old employee of an advertising firm in New York with a favorite pair of Manolos and a guy named Jackson presenting pesky love life problems (whew, that got away from me there, didn't it?), but it has struck a nerve, and rather intensely.

So, female authors, this is my challenge to you: write. And write well. Don't publish something on the basis that it will sell, publish it because it's worthwhile, truly. Because honestly? Junior high quality writing might bring in the dollars, but it doesn't bring in the respect.

I can't stop watching this

2008-07-31T20:54:31Z

this is why I don't talk on the phone

2008-07-23T15:12:25Z

I'm pretty sure I've never had a normal exchange over the phone with my electric company, but after this morning I'm equally sure the person I just talked to could have a lucrative career as a phone sex operator. Consider:

Misty the Electric Employee: "Hiiii, this is Mistyyyy. How may I help you?"
Me: "Er..hi, I'd like to schedule a date to turn off my electricity."
Misty: "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. What date---oh wait--please hold."
Me: (wtf?)
Misty: "Sorry about that. What day would you like?"
Me: "August 1st?"
Misty: "MMMHMM. That one looks to be booked."
Me: "July 31st?"
Misty: (big breath) "MMMHMM, booked."
Me: "Okay, well, can you tell me what days around that time period are actually available?"
Misty: "AHHH. WELLL. Monday the 28th hasn't been filllllllled."
Me: "Fine. That."
Misty: "MMM. Thanks for calling."

Seriously.