cutting the other edge
Travel
Ich habe mit meinem Herz hämmerte
Sep 30th
“We’re in a road movie to Berlin
Can’t drive out the way we drove in
So sneak out this glass of bourbon
And we’ll go
“We were once so close to heaven
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned
Time won’t find the lost
It’ll sweep up our skeleton bones
So take the wheel and I will take the pedals
“We’re in a road movie to Berlin
Can’t drive out the way we drove in
So sneak out this glass of bourbon
And we’ll go…”
-They Might Be Giants, Flood, 1987
It’s Alive!…
Mar 12th
Howdy folks…
I’m not quite dead, as they say–hurling my guts up in a Gatwick airport security line may have been rockstar, but it didn’t kill me! No, as soon as I’m done with this move (apartment upgrade), a plethora of posts and pix will appear, as if by magic, on this very site.
Stay tuned!
It’s Here
Mar 1st
Well, today’s the day! At 2pm, hopefully, I’ll be on a plane out of Jacksonville, bound for New York’s JFK. In a way, I feel pulled in two directions at once–stoked as hell to be going to Europe, but dreading the three-hour drive to Jacksonville, and the grueling airplane fun after that. But fuck it! I’ve been wanting for weeks and weeks now to just throw a backpack on my shoulder, jump on a plane, and go wander around the Continent in a way I just haven’t had a chance to do yet. And here it is!
I’ve got my diary, my music, my passport, and my comfy new jacket (for the still-cool temps over there). I’m ready. Let’s go see what we see.
Countdown: Tomorrow
Feb 28th
So here it is, the last day before my trip, and all I can think about is how glad I am that midterms are over. When I was in art school, we’d have a midterm critique, and that was harder–getting the projects all ready, and then sitting there while they’re verbally dissected right in front of your eyes. But essay exams aren’t exactly a piece of cake, though fortunately I find the subjects interesting. In Modern Britain 1870-Present, we’ve just got done with the Great War; in Victorian British Literature, we’ve just finished studying the Aesthetic movement and the Decadents.
So I find it rather cool to be going over to Europe right now. I plan on hunting out Oscar Wilde’s grave in Cimitiere Pere Lachaise in Paris, giving it a big ol’ lipstick kiss. Also, I’d like to revisit the Musee d’Orsay, sit in the Art Nouveau rooms for a little while and try to imagine what life was like in the 1880′s and 1890′s. To me, that’s one of the most interesting times and places ever, and one of the ones I’d most like to go back to if I had the chance.
In London, I plan on finally seeing the Imperial War Museum. I didn’t have the heart to go last time, being so sick and tired; but so much of what we’ve studied in the Modern Britain class would be on display there. It’s good to see exhibits of something you’ve studied in class, especially something as huge, complicated, and foreign as WWI. It drives the point home in a way that reading about it just can’t. Someday I’d like to go see a few of the battlefields. Maybe I could talk my father into enduring the 11 hours on a plane, and we’ll go see Normandy and Flanders. For now, I think one museum will be enough. It’s a heavy thing to consider.
But hopefully I’ll also have fun. I’d like to see a theatre production, but I don’t know which one yet. Depends on what I can afford tickets for! Probably go out dancing in London, too–I never did get over missing John Digweed by one night last spring. Oh well!
Anyways, off to finish one more paper…