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| Photo: http://expertvagabond.com/cheap-broadway-tickets/ |
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
My Broadway Lottery Luck
Monday, June 15, 2015
My Books of the Moment
Books, books, wonderful books. During the school year, I read a lot for class. In two English classes alone this past semester I read 16 books. While I love many of the books I read in class and they become some of my favorites, it isn't the same process as reading for pleasure in my own time. When I read for class, I'm often going as fast as I can, tallying up how many hours it will take me to read another 200 pages, hunched up in the library with a pen in my hand. But when I read for pleasure I can relax and absorb the plot without contemplating the use of the picturesque, or the author's views on evolution. I must admit as time goes on the lines between reading for pleasure and for class get blurred in that way. After three years of studying English at the college level, I do find myself analyzing the text for feminist theories and wondering what the symbolic geography lends to the family dynamic in any given novel. I remember my English teacher in high school telling me how lucky I was that I could still read a book without a pen in my hand. Now, as those days seem numbered for me, I see what he meant.
But now let me share some of the books I've been reading lately for pleasure.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
On to the Next One: Brooklyn
On to Brooklyn! And there have been a few stops along the way.
Ohio-->Buffalo-->Martha's Vineyard-->Concord-->Brooklyn
After hours in the library surrounded by tears, notes, dozens of soggy paper coffee cups, USB flash drives, and scraps of food I managed to gather to sustain myself, my junior year of college ended.
After a couple weeks of R&R in Buffalo, my mom, sister, and I shoved our car full of suitcases, turned on Comedy Central radio and set off for the 8 hour drive to Martha's Vineyard. Comedy Central turned out to be unsurprisingly male--and therefore penis driven--comedy, but there were some gems in there that literally brought my mother to tears. This is the definition of "dangerously funny" because she was driving at the time and her tears of laughter were impairing her vision. In case you're wondering, the joke had to do with a woman repeatedly leaving messages on her mother's answering machine pretending to be baby Jesus.
The Vineyard was similarly restful, although more beautiful and with more delicious food than Buffalo. One of the highlights of the trip was eating dinner on the second floor of a restaurant next to a window. Yes, the views of the sunset were gorgeous, yes the food was scrumptious. But that's not what made this dinner such a poignant moment of the trip. From our perch, we were able to see two teenage girls design their own photo shoot under a tree beside the sidewalk outside. One girl was the model and the other was the photographer snapping away with her Iphone. The poses consisted of throwing her head back, flinging leaves in the air, and the classic: leaning against the tree. Real ingenuity and gumption was shown, however, when the shoot was taken to the next level, and the model laid down on the ground underneath the tree and her photographer friend fanned out her hair behind her. They assessed this photo, heads bent over the screen, and walked away. Their work was done. There's no beating the on-the-ground-hair-fanned-out-mermaid-style photo.
While on Martha's Vineyard other activities included bike riding. I forced my dad and sister to join me as I turned an amateur walking trail into a dirt-bike adventure, causing several near-accidents.
In Concord, New Hampshire I was visiting my friend Jane and her family, all of whom I love dearly. Jane is a big-shot business lady now, though, leaving me in the house while she went to her high-power internship to watch Friends and play with her dogs and secretly eat her cereal. It was a grand time, nonetheless.
Now, here I am in Brooklyn! Moved in for the summer, with a remote internship, looking for a job. The city is more daunting than I anticipated, and I have to push myself to go outside and do things alone. There have been some great adventures in the short time I've been here, though. Jane's dad's gig in Dumbo, a Mumford and Sons concert, a premiere for a web series done by some Kenyon alumni, trips to bookstores, the High Line, Ultimate frisbee pick up, and silence-inducing fried chicken. I think I'll become more comfortable with the neighborhood and the city with time. It's something that takes a little adjustment. The places I've lived in so far in my life have all been relatively small and quiet compared to New York. I'm excited to get this city under my belt.
Now pictures!
Ohio-->Buffalo-->Martha's Vineyard-->Concord-->Brooklyn
After hours in the library surrounded by tears, notes, dozens of soggy paper coffee cups, USB flash drives, and scraps of food I managed to gather to sustain myself, my junior year of college ended.
After a couple weeks of R&R in Buffalo, my mom, sister, and I shoved our car full of suitcases, turned on Comedy Central radio and set off for the 8 hour drive to Martha's Vineyard. Comedy Central turned out to be unsurprisingly male--and therefore penis driven--comedy, but there were some gems in there that literally brought my mother to tears. This is the definition of "dangerously funny" because she was driving at the time and her tears of laughter were impairing her vision. In case you're wondering, the joke had to do with a woman repeatedly leaving messages on her mother's answering machine pretending to be baby Jesus.
The Vineyard was similarly restful, although more beautiful and with more delicious food than Buffalo. One of the highlights of the trip was eating dinner on the second floor of a restaurant next to a window. Yes, the views of the sunset were gorgeous, yes the food was scrumptious. But that's not what made this dinner such a poignant moment of the trip. From our perch, we were able to see two teenage girls design their own photo shoot under a tree beside the sidewalk outside. One girl was the model and the other was the photographer snapping away with her Iphone. The poses consisted of throwing her head back, flinging leaves in the air, and the classic: leaning against the tree. Real ingenuity and gumption was shown, however, when the shoot was taken to the next level, and the model laid down on the ground underneath the tree and her photographer friend fanned out her hair behind her. They assessed this photo, heads bent over the screen, and walked away. Their work was done. There's no beating the on-the-ground-hair-fanned-out-mermaid-style photo.
While on Martha's Vineyard other activities included bike riding. I forced my dad and sister to join me as I turned an amateur walking trail into a dirt-bike adventure, causing several near-accidents.
In Concord, New Hampshire I was visiting my friend Jane and her family, all of whom I love dearly. Jane is a big-shot business lady now, though, leaving me in the house while she went to her high-power internship to watch Friends and play with her dogs and secretly eat her cereal. It was a grand time, nonetheless.
Now, here I am in Brooklyn! Moved in for the summer, with a remote internship, looking for a job. The city is more daunting than I anticipated, and I have to push myself to go outside and do things alone. There have been some great adventures in the short time I've been here, though. Jane's dad's gig in Dumbo, a Mumford and Sons concert, a premiere for a web series done by some Kenyon alumni, trips to bookstores, the High Line, Ultimate frisbee pick up, and silence-inducing fried chicken. I think I'll become more comfortable with the neighborhood and the city with time. It's something that takes a little adjustment. The places I've lived in so far in my life have all been relatively small and quiet compared to New York. I'm excited to get this city under my belt.
Now pictures!
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| Grandpa questions my bike adventures |
