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.