| I've been thinking for a while about, you know, updating my LJ. So, here I go!
What I'm doing:
- Still in MFA program. Taking two writing classes and a seminar about ghostliness and the modern.
- Teaching wee undergraduates.
- Watching Supernatural, Veronica Mars, Heroes, Studio 60, Smallville, Friday Night Lights.
What I plan to write about in my LJ in 2007:
- TV.
- Gossip about my students.
- My neuroses.
- Maybe the story about how Lindsay Lohan stole my wallet.
- Maybe some of the things that I'm writing.
Why I'm still awake:
Because I went to see Justin Timberlake at MSG tonight! Ellie from Degrassi: TNG was sitting right in front of me. Sometimes I feel sad that I'm not in a PhD program, but then I remember how much I love celebrities and I realize I've chosen the right career path for myself.
My big plans for 2007:
- Ten year high school reunion in June!
- Better organization of home and habits.
- Regular journaling. Starting... later this week. With tags! Maybe friends-locked, just to spice things up! | comments: 5 accidental deaths or make me love you   |
| | On Thursday, as I was teaching, I was trying to use Christiane Amanpour's show on CNN as an example of "news as entertainment" but I couldn't remember her name. I asked my students if they could help -- I finally described her as "the woman with the French name on CNN" -- and all of them were like "ohhhhh, yes. You mean Nancy Grace!" | | comments: 2 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Oh, hello, LJland. I was about to leave the house to go to yoga when I got distracted by (a) looking for a larger bobby pin, (b) researching the effects of the French Revolution on late eighteenth-century British literary culture, and (c) reading a short story about a pimply poet and his dirty mattress (not Rimbaud), and now I'm late anyway, so I figured I'd just post to my long-forgotten journal. I see that there's this weird new livejournal layout -- crazy days! Here's what's new with me:
1. I mean, a lot.
2. Teaching. The kids are adorable. Writing a syllabus is hard. Note to self: even genius 18-year-olds do not automatically know what a "textual intervention" is.
3. Directed a crazy short film. Traumatic. Editing it now.
4. In the last three weeks, I watched 42 episodes of "Veronica Mars." Amazing! I'm obsessed with Logan -- even that actor's blatant imitation of Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy does not bother me. This show makes me love America. We might have some problems, but we sure know how to make teen TV.
I miss you all! If anyone has genius ideas for a feature screenplay, please advise ASAP. I will name the main character after you. | | comments: 2 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Since this has become the livejournal of me asking questions to which nobody has answers:
What are some amazing examples of gentle social satire, a la "Emma" and "Saved"? "Citizen Ruth" is too abrasive. Thanks, friends! | | comments: 6 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| | On a lighter note, I am doing a project about the fabulous year of 1988, and I need to find lots of music from that fine year. College rock, raps, top 40, novelty hits... I want it all! Give me some recs, please. | | comments: 1 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Okay, I did not feel the need to post about anything else that has been on my mind since... whenever I last posted, dear LJ. However, I do feel the need to say this: am I the only person in the entire city of New York who supports union labor?
I understand completely that subway and bus commuters will face lost wages if they can't get to work. That is valid. But it is not the fault of the Transit Workers Union -- it is the fault of the MTA for trying to force the union to sign a bad contract. Did you know that the MTA's proposed contract would increase the amount of money workers pay for health insurance and offer salary increases below the rate of inflation?
It is so frustrating to me that the working people I overhear on the subway or talk to or am friends with do not seem to care that the MTA is getting away with treating their workers like a disposible commodity. The fact that this strike might be happening is not surprising to me, nor is the MTA's terrible contract offer, nor is the fact that the media response has been reactionary, focusing almost exclusively on the potential lost revenues for city businesses should a strike occur.
What is surprising is that I do not know anyone, even the most politically progressive kids who won't order from freshdirect because they do not want to contribute to noise pollution from trucks, who seems to care about or support the Transit Workers Union. Nobody is talking about how brave they are to strike even in the face of the anti-union laws that say their strike is illegal, and nobody is impressed by the fact that thousands of union members have been attending rallies and meetings in freezing cold weather. Well, Transit Workers Union, if you are reading this, I care! I hope you guys win, and if I could find your picket line, I would totally not cross it. | | comments: 3 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| In my mind it is still last week, or maybe early September! Time just flies.
Anyway, friends: I have two tickets that I can't use to see "See What I Wanna See" at the Public Theater, starring Henry Stram, Idina Menzel, and a few other people who I am sure are just as great. It's a musical. The performance is Wednesday the 19th, at 2:00 PM. Apparently there's a Q&A afterwards. They were $25 each, because I got a student discount. I don't remember the exact seat location, but I can find out. Is anyone interested? | | comments: 2 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Hello friends and the internets at large! I have a very special offer for you! This summer I bought The Sims 2, because I was buying a bunch of other stuff from the Apple Store and I guess I was having an uncontrolled impulse, like one of those unfortunate young women in a Roman Polanski movie except without the psychosexual tension.
I played it once and then got extremely bored with it and forgot about it for months, until this weekend, when I quite unfortunately began to play it again due to desperate avoidance of my directing homework. Well, basically now I am completely addicted, and I need to get this game out of my house (just as one might need to get a devil fetus out of oneself). I guess it would mess up my metaphor to say that that I should be watching Rosemary's Baby, but instead, I am waiting for my sim girl to have alien twins. I mean, but that is the truth.
So, you might wonder how you can help. Well, I mean for one thing you can tell me to stop. But also, for another thing, if you have a Macintosh computer, I will send you this game for free if you promise to get addicted to it and then tell me about it so that I will feel like less of a nerd. Please take this demon spawn away from me! I am serious.
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Okay, in other news, I have seen several NYFF movies: "Good Night and Good Luck," and "The Squid and the Whale." There was an awkward grad school moment after Squiddy, in that there was a reception for my school that I unknowingly wandered into with my sister. I was promptly molested by a drunken professor, and then Mira Nair made a speech about how we need more films that are not from the USA, and then I started to realize how sleazy all the male professors in my program are and then we left. However, I will say that I enjoyed both films -- maybe Squid was more fun for me, but mostly because it reminded me almost exactly of growing up with parents who have a million books and are too cheap to let you get what you want at a restaurant. Also, the squid and the whale themselves were major figures in my childhood (as they are for every kid in NYC, I am sure), so it was easy to please me. Good Night was great too, and I hope lots of people see it and think about it! | | comments: 13 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| | Today while walking across Houston Street to my dad's birthday dinner, I noted that the big gas station on the corner of Lafayette Street had NO GAS LEFT. What has happened to the freaking world??? | | comments: 1 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| oh, life!!!!!!
my doggy is recovering from his brush with dog paralysis, and i am almost sort of getting used to graduate school. this week i have written treatments for approximately 3248902375 hypothetical feature films that basically all feature a girl protagonist and have something to do with music and neighborhoods. Our teachers tell us to write with an actor in mind, and I notice that I often have the actress who plays Kate on "Lost" in mind, and sometimes I also have Rachel McAdams or Zoe Saldana in mind. Maybe if I start thinking of other actors, I will also think of different kinds of stories.
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I went out on Saturday night with a girlhood friend who lives in another city now, and her boyfriend's best friend turned out to be the housemate of two of my classmates. Weird. My friend has been trying to fix me up with him for many months and I resisted meeting him, but basically you can only go for so long before you end up going out with a bunch of gays, your childhood bff, and her boyfriend's best friend who has a nice profile (I mean a profile of the face, not a friendster profile because his friendster profile is not so great).
At first I liked him alright, but then he made some comments designed to annoy me: (1) "this place used to be cool but now it is mostly bridge and tunnel," and (2) "lesbians hate me." I have never been a bridge & tunnel-dweller in my life, but I support my sisters and brothers who live in the outer boroughs and in the fine state of New Jersey! Westchester, Long Island, New Haven, it's all good! I mean, unless you were born in Manhattan, you really cannot make jokes about "bridge & tunnel" people, because that is you, friend. And if you were born in Manhattan, like me, you are probably too busy wishing you were from an outer borough and had cred to care where someone else is from. Also, if you think that lesbians hate you, you are probably spending too much time worrying about whether lesbians hate you.
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Today I went back to my old, virtually cred-less neighborhood to buy student-price tickets for my momster and I for "See What I Wanna See" at the Public Theater. I don't really know that much about it, except that it is some sort of version of "Rashoman" and Idina Menzel is in it -- basically, that is all I needed to know! I meant to buy tickets for a Friday or Saturday show, but I accidentally got some for Wednesday the 19th of October at 2 PM -- they were really good seats, and my excitement led me to forget that my mom can't go that day. Technically, I can't go either, but I am thinking of cutting class to do it, if I can find an accomplice!
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I am thinking about taking a job tutoring through America Reads, but I do not really know very much about the program (AKA the politics and most importantly the pay). If any of you have done an America Reads-type thing and have info, please share!
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Last night I watched the season premiere of "nip/tuck," which I highly recommend as a show, and tonight is the premiere of "lost"! I am missing "lost" due to being at work, but I am counting on the internets to supply me very soon upon returning home. HERE IS MY DESPERATE PLEA: IS THERE ALREADY A TORRENT FOR LOST PLEASE. OK OK, that's really all!!!!!!!!! | | comments: 8 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| I started to update the day before yesterday, but I fell asleep and then my laptop went into some sort of emergency mode that did nothing but cause me to lose my beloved unpublished LJ entry. Anyway, here is what has happened to me this month, in a nutshell:
1. started graduate school. so far, so good.
2. got called to be in a usa today poll; was one of the 12% of white people who think that George Bush does not care about black people!!!
3. okay, please do not panic about this anyone (lord knows, I did), but yesterday, my beloved dog ** woke up and could not move his back legs! This is especially terrible because he has been staying at dog summer camp with some very kindly old folks in the state in New England that I cannot spell, and they were really unable to do much to help him besides take him to their backcountry vet and give him anti-inflammatory medication. I completely froke out and cried for a very long time and then finally found a veterinary neurologist who could see him tomorrow. My very wonderful dad drove up there to pick him up today, and miraculously when he got there, ** could walk again! Anyway, I am so happy that he is not permanently a gimp dog (lord willing!!!!) and I am still taking him to the dog brain doctor tomorrow, because you never know! I was hoping that I could wait until my house was fully furnished before bringing him back to live with me, but basically now I don't care. I mean, he can pee all over my flokati rug, and eat my shoes, and scratch at my door, and I will still be so grateful to have him here!
4. Carson Daly really looks like my old boss now that he lives in Los Angeles. Also, aren't the Donnas sick of themselves and each other by now? | | comments: 3 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| | Hi, if you are on my friends list and you are reading that new Harry Potter book please do not post any spoilers about without a cut tag, and please do not use a cut tag that is like "THAT ENDING MADE ME WANT TO PUKE AND HERE IS WHY." I am planning to read the entire thing as a MOTHER DAUGHTER ACTIVITY with my POOR AILING MOTHER, and if you spoil me for anything, I will find you. | | comments: 1 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Well, I am back on the east coast now! In honor of this, I have spent the evening listening to songs in an attempt to pick some to upload. I am still trying to decide, so in the meantime please guess the names of the songs that these first lines belong to! They were randomly selected on iTunes, which continues to get worse with every software update.
( a productive waste of an evening )
Next time: actual content! | | comments: 18 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Please tell me everything you know about the following street:
119th and 8th Avenue.
And also please answer the following question for me:
SHOULD I LIVE THERE OR NOT FOR $675 A MONTH? | | comments: 8 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| Happy Mother's Day! I am watching the Ab Fab marathon on BBC America, and they are now showing the best episode of all time, in which Saffy gets sold into white slavery in Marrakesh.
I need some help, friendslist! I am looking for pictures of celebrities with bangs in preparation for my haircut on Thursday. I want bangs that are sort of long and sort of thick. This is a risky thing to describe to a hair stylist, so I am hoping that I can bring along a picture of, say, Rachel Bilson or someone like that to illustrate my point. However, I cannot find any pictures anywhere. Please help!
Here is are some pictures of my dog, **, in thanks for your efforts:
( They look just like the last pictures I posted. ) | | comments: 4 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| The unguessed first lines from the books meme:
1. In the early 1950s, history and politics conspired to create a circumstance in which it was impossible for me to ply my chosen trade -- namely, writing. From While England Sleeps by David Leavitt
7. The first time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses. From Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
10. God was grumbling his thunder and playing the zig-zag lightning thru his fingers. From Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston
17. Green dice rolled across the green table, struck the rim together, and bounced back. From The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett | | comments: make me love you |
| This is a meme that I stole from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) burnitbackwards wherein I pick the first lines of twenty of my fave books and you guess the books! I was going to do twenty-five, but I could only think of twenty-three, and it was getting confusing. Also, please note that these are all novels -- no short stories, no anthologies of film criticism. Anyway:
( 20 book lines for you to guess! ) | | comments: 22 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| I have acquired my dog. He does not yet have a name. Possibilities are: Mondo, Gizmo, Wallace Shaun, Phoenix (suggested by my 8-year-old neighbor), a Swedish name such as Gunther or Toste AKA Toasty (Nordic concept suggested by eleveninches), and Toaster Seven and also omg I nearly forgot ** (suggested by burnitbackwards). Please observe the enclosed (huge giant) pictures and advise.
( nameless cute dog ) | | comments: 17 accidental deaths or make me love you |
| | Thank you to all dog advisors. I am going to respond to comments right this minute but I just want to tell you all that I am getting the doggie!!!! I adopted him today and I am bringing him home tomorrow after I get the house all organized and dog-ready. | | comments: make me love you |
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