update

Here I am, sitting in a little house in the mountains, far away from New York City. I miss the urban sprawl and noise terribly. The home sickness hits at the oddest moments, like when I realize I can't stroll out my door and pick up some Afghani or Ethiopian food. People keep asking me the completely obvious question of "do you miss the city?" and every time I answer a resounding "YES!". It's true, though. I really do miss my dirty, over crowded, ill mannered home.

That said, being back in the 'countryside' is kind of nice. It's nice to wake up to birds chirping or to step outside and be able to smell cut grass and damp earth. There's a big garden for me to dig and plant in, three cats and a dog to play with, great parks to go camp in and the always beautiful view of mountains on the horizon. Better yet, I am putting together a musical duo and we've already gained quite a bit of attention in the local area.

Of course, being here has led to a fair amount of boredom. Before, living in New York City, I could step outside my front door and go for a walk and bump into all sorts of characters and colorful sights. Now I have to do more self-entertainment. Since most of my things are still packed up from my move, this means I've been relying heavily on my friend's Xbox. I feel like a 13 year old boy every time I pick up the Xbox controls, but still, there's a part of me that is stuck in the pubescent world of male teenagehood. I love video games, especially violent, overly gory ones. This probably explains why I beat the game 'Jade Empire' in 2 days, or how I've racked up an impressive amount of points on 'Burn Out'. (That particular game, by the way, falls under the 'needlessly violent' category: it's a racing game that also includes options such as 'road rage' where you bump opponents off the road).

Other than the Xbox, one website has been keeping my attention these past few days. My friend Nate, newly back from a semester in Europe, was the one who alerted me to it. The website is www.lastfm.com. You can go there and type in any artist and get live radio streaming of that musician's work. Even cooler is that you can get live streaming of musicians with similar styles. It's a great way to discover new music or expand one's musical knowledge.

Some music I've been listening to pretty non-stop:
Steve Reich
Liars
Arovane
The Foals

Steve Reich has especially been my go-to musical man these past few days. I can't seem to get enough.

At any rate, the blog is still being updated, even though I'm no longer in NYC. I'll be gone all summer, but I'm keeping this blog going because I've come to enjoy writing on here. Anyway, I'll be back in my beloved city soon enough.

Editing is still going on, so don't be surprised if some posts change or go missing. Let me know if there are any posts you'd like to see corrected.

obedience is not patriotism

A very good point that was made on a sidewalk somewhere off of Avenue A in the East Village.
(Sorry about the low quality of the photo, it was taken on my cell phone in the middle of the night!)

update

Hello,

Happy Rainy Day Friday to you.

Over the next few weeks I am making it a personal project of mine to spruce up this blog. Some editing will be done, deleting of certain posts, and just general tidying up. This is so I can start linking my blog address to my facebook account and the like, and not feel strange when people that know me may actually read it.

Also, I really am pretty fond of some of my entries, and would like more people to read them. So, fixing everything up is a nice way to get that ball rolling.

Have a lurve-e-lee day.

-- the blogger :)

sounds & noises

Birds.

That's what I've been hearing lately.

Lots and lots of birds. Chirping madly, singing happily, fussing noisily.

This is how I know spring has finally arrived. It's officially here when the birds of Brooklyn go melody happy and start singing all day long.

Another thing I've been hearing a lot of are catcalls.

I don't mean the raunchy, rude kind that make your skin crawl.

I mean the kind that are friendlier in tone, a sort of 'Spring Has Sprung and I Think You're Beautiful!' kind of call.

Things I've been told/informed of this week:

"Ah, you're so gorgeous, you're beautiful sweetie!"

"Beautiful, just beautiful."

"I like your smile."

"How you doin'? You're beautiful, you know that?"

And so on.

I know some women get very upset when men make comments to them, but for me, as long as it's nice and not disgusting, I don't have a problem with it. In fact, being the vain little creature that I am, I kind of love being called beautiful.

Even the neighborhood crackhead informed me I was hot stuff the other weekend.

We actually had quite a funny exchange. I was standing with a friend on the steps to my stoop, when a large guy steps up to me and starts talking some game. (You know, the chat-'em-up sort of idiocy that so many men think is a great way to meet someone.) Anyway, he ends up telling me his name.

"My name is Freedom," he said to me, like I should never forget it.

Well, hell's bells I thought. Freedom. What a great name.

My response?

"Did your mother give you that name?"

He smiled at that one.

"Nah."

But he kept smiling. I think I got points for being so sharp with him.

He asked me my name and I told him my nickname.

His response?

"Did your mother give you that name?"

My reply?

"Nah."



There are always kids playing on the basketball court that is next door to me. The constant dribble sound of ball-against-pavement floats up to and through my window in a kind of endless drone. It's relaxing, in a way. The sound is a soft one, very dull, and far away.

I can't replicate it on a computer keyboard.

Maybe like this: thud thud thud.

Then again, maybe not.



Certain sounds really bother me. Construction work, for example. It always begins so early, and so ominously. It starts with a rumble, and then horrible crashing noises, like hundreds of pieces of sheet metal getting dropped on concrete. Grumbles and rumbles and horrible belly aching noises that just make me want to grit my teeth and pull a pillow over my head to block it all out.

Except nothing blocks it out.

Sometimes, when I'm just waking up from a dream, I think the construction noises are really the rumbling of some giant's sore belly. Okay, not really, but how fun would that be if that were truly the case?

Giants running wild in New York.

an overheard admission

Something to think about:

... we would know far more about life's complexities if we applied ourselves to the close study
of its contradictions instead of wasting so much time on similarities and connections, which should, anyway, be self-explanatory.

-- Jose Saramago, 'The Cave'