some birds are funny when they talk
corner



Fellows:

Aijung
Alyssa
Angela
Bobby
Carla
Dave
Ester
Jesse
Jonah
Josie
Kate
Lillie
Nori
Rabi
Rebecca

Mincetapes

e-mince

Photos!

Nice

Archives:

Stuck in my Head
"Kiss Me Harder" by Bertine Zetlitz
"Hot" by Avril
"Brain Problem Situation" by They Might Be Giants


Now Reading
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Recently Finished
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Mad Tony and Me by Carl Hoffman
Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guaralnick
This Must Be The Place: Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century by David Bowman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Movies Lately
Sicko
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
2 Days in Paris
United 93
The Savages
The Bourne Ultimatum
Sweeney Todd
The Departed
Juno
Enchanted
What Would Jesus Buy?
Ghost World
Superbad
I'm Not There
She's The Man
Superbad
Lars and the Real Girl
Romance and Cigarettes
No Country for Old Men
Into the Wild
Gattaca
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
Across the Universe

Shows Lately
Damo Suzuki/Stinking Lizaveta @ Mill Creek
Death and the Maiden @ Curio
Devon Sproule/Carsie Blanton/Devin Greenwood/John Francis @ Tin Angel
Assassins @ The Arden
Oakley Hall and the Teeth @ Johnny Brendas
Isabella and Flamingo/Winnebago and Map Me and Gatz and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Sonic Dances and Strawberry Farm and The Emperor Jones and No Dice and Hearts of Man and Principles of Uncertainty and Isabella and BATCH and Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's 20th Century and Car and Sports Trilogy and Explanatorium and Wandering Alice and Must Don't Whip Um and Festival of Lies and A Room of Ones Own and Recitatif @ the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe
Martha Graham Cracker and Eliot Levin and Kilo etc. @ the Fringe Cabaret
Lullatone and Teletextile @ Boulder Coffee [Rochester]
TV Sound @ the M Room
Aretha Franklin @ East Dell, Fairmount Pk.
Romeo + Juliet in Clark Park
Daft Punk @ Red Rocks
Spoon @ Rockefeller Park
Ponytail at Pony Pants' House
Mirah/Benjy Ferree @ the 1UC
Tortoise @ World Cafe Live
Hall & Oates...ish
"Nuclear Dreams" - Mascher Dance Group, x2
The Four of Us @ 1812
Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines by Rainpan whatever
Mascher Dance Group/Nathaniel Bartlett
Cornelius @ TLA
Sloan @ World Cafe
In Fluxxxx
Slavic Soul Party!/Red Heart the Ticker @ I-House
the Fantasticks @ Mum
Peter Bjork + Jorn/Fujiya + Miyagi @ fkaTLA
John Vanderslice @ Johnny Brendas
The Books & Todd Reynolds @ 1UC
Into the Woods @ LPAC
The Fishbowl @ the Frear
Caroline, or, Change @ the Arden
Low & Loney, Dear. @ 1UC




Thursday, October 16

there are a couple of (externally-derived) mythologies functioning on this trip. one is tolkein: partially carried over from the michigan trip, and always somewhere in the air at hoffman-side (male) gatherings anyway (this time the fellowship is six, so we don't know how that works out) but particularly relevant since a) we all watched fellowship the other night and b) i'm reading return of the king now, looking to better my yearly tradition of finishing each volume right before the movie comes out. i'm only halfway through the last six chapters, which are apparently just going to be denouement, but so far at least i'm enjoying this one possibly the most so far. at least, i'm most engaged by it. it's definitely getting me excited for the movie (specially since the shelob stuff will be in this one.) anyway, tramping about big impressive mountain ranges and medieval castles is good territory for feeling tolkein.

another is fleming; well, bond rather (and not the overlooked books of course but the movies), it's pretty inevitable with the scenery and all the cute euro sportscars (sure we saw some aston martins), but also specifically referenced a few times. we imagined a 007-style chase across bernese rooftops, when the bearpits were empty. best was our danish expat waiter the second night in zermatt (three kinds of fondue alone in the basement) who looked the part in bowtied black-and-white, said he learned his english from bond films. (that was before my mom asked him "what is this, a collection of the worst cds ever made?" sorry, but it was funny.) actually, speaking sort of of fleming, there's also something about those mountain towns that made me think of chitty chitty bang bang (again, not the book, which if i remember right doesn't have that part in it at all, but the movie, which i saw so long ago it all runs together with "babes in toyland" and other things i can't think of), the sinister child-hating (is that right?) fairlyland gingerbread village.

that ties in with pynchon (this is only part of why i need to read gr again, but something about the zw?lfkinder stuff and the culture of innocence, like this part?) and more straightforwardly with disney (the other dominant cultural "mythology," for want of a better term) that central-europe-fetishizing/theme-park-ification/tourist-world business (okay, i'm not even going to get into baudrillard) which you know is all about sinister and gingerbread. well, it's easy to be cynical but actually nothing here is anywhere near as bad as venice which is totally demoralizing disney territory. oh, there's "the sound of music" too. those countries are all interchangable

come on now honey
bring it on bring it on now