Where The Wild Things Are

Hey guys, it's me. Break was really fun. It was great to see my family. I'm planning on doing a blog on one day in particular, but not right now. Right now, it's pushing 1 AM , and I'm going to go to bed soon. But I was on my laptop to send a few emails to my parents and Emily, and I saw what is possibly the coolest movie trailer I've ever seen. It's for the upcoming adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are", a children's book by Maurice Sendak that I used to read as a kid with my mom. I really liked the book, and when I found out that they were making a movie out of it, I thought it wouldn't work well. But now that I've seen the trailer, I'm actually hopeful/excited for the movie. I've watched the trailer at least a half dozen times in the past half hour. Here it is:

I love the trailer for a bunch of reasons. For one, the backgrounds/scenery/locations look really cool. There's a great looking forest, a big desert, and some cliffs by the sea. I'm a fan. The Wild Things look great. They're huge but realisitic. They talk, but the one's voice didn't seem out of place for some reason. They look emotional and fun. I love how the trailer opened and revealed the Wild Thing a little at a time. Very classy. Max looks pretty cool too. He seems more sad and less sadistic than he was in the book, and I think that's a good move. I even like the text and font in this trailer! And the clips in the trailer are beautifully arranged. They make sense, as opposed to other trailers that have a bunch of cool scenes just thrown together. I especially like the sequence of Max running away from the camera, and him playing with the ship followed by the clip of him in the real ship. It all worked well with the music, which was almost as good as the trailer itself.

The song they used is a new recording of "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire is my second-favorite indie band after The Bravery. Their two CDs, "Funeral" and "Neon Bible" are two of the best CDs to come out of the 2000's, in my opinion. "Wake Up" is one of their most well-known songs. And while it's not my favorite Arcade Fire tune, it's still really good. And the version used in this trailer is even better than the original. I can't wait for them to release the whole song, because they only used chunks of it in the trailer. But I LOVE how they used it in the trailer. The music fit perfectly, and the lyrics worked just as well:

"Children, don't grow up. Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causing rain storms, turning every good thing to rust..."

Oh, and even this rocked: the only line of dialogue in the trailer is "I didn't want to wake you up...but I really want to show you something..." And the name of the song is "Wake Up"!

This trailer is brilliant. It's classy, beautiful, emotional, nostalgic, invigorating, and powerful. It makes me want to go see the movie, which is what all trailers are supposed to do.

I had been listening to soundtrack to "West Side Story" before I saw the trailer. After I post this, I'm going to listen to Arcade Fire in bed. I'll post something about break later. Good night guys.

EDIT: Ok, it's the next day and I've already watched this trailer four more times. Here are some more things that I love about it:

I still love the new version of "Wake Up" and the suspenseful opening.

I love Max in school being sad and daydreamy. Max in school=me in school.

I love the new backstory of Max's mom and the guy, and how Max doesn't like it. It adds depth to the story, but makes a lot of sense. It's like the reason why Max growls at his mom in the book. It also works FANTASTICALLY in the trailer with the lyrics of the song that happen right then: "our hearts get torn up"- when he leans in, sees them kissing, and sadly leans away like he didn't want to see that. Beautiful.

The next chunk of lyric works equally as well: "we're just a million little gods causing rainstorms" as Max runs down the mountain with his costume, crown, and scepter, silhouetted so you can't see him, followed by a Wild Thing holding a tiny statue or something.

I love the "Inside all of us" sections. I love the "Hope" part, where there is a little leaf growing out of the word "hope", followed by Max and the Wild Thing lying near flowers, and Max giving his mom a hug. I love how the text for "Inside of all of us is fear" gets smaller and smaller in a decending slope, and the clips that follow are all darkened. There's a Wild Thing holding her head and crying and a huge splash in the ocean during the storm. Then "Inside all of us is adventure" is the opposite-the words get bigger and bigger in an ascending slope (and the "E" turns into a hairy foot).

I love how they used the part of "Wake Up" where the tempo/rhythm changes.

I still love all the clips of Max running from the camera, but I also love the clips of him running toward the camera. I love him sliding down the mountain followed by a clip of him sliding down an icy slope. I love him, the Wild Things, and another boy (him again?) throwing rocks/snowballs in three different clips.

I love the Wild Things roaring and making noise at the end.

This was a well done trailer. Everything about it was perfectly done. I can't wait to see the movie.

A Break and a Birthday (Kinda)

So, break starts today. And my family is here. That's exciting. Like, really exciting. They're tired from jet-lag, and I'm tired from going to bed at like 2:30 last night, but tomorrow will be better for all of us. I'm not going to post anything during break unless something REALLY big comes up. I just want to unwind and have fun with my family. But the program officially ends in less than a month, and I'm home in like a month and a week. So that's pretty cool.

My family brought a whole bunch of cool stuff that made me feel loved. It was great. My sister brought greetings from a bunch of my former teachers, as well as a letter that I wrote to myself in Spanish class two years ago and notes from my Spanish classmates from last year. I was able to read all of it, and it made me miss a bunch of people from high school. My parents brought candy from Mrs. Delong and a card from Grandma (thanks guys!) as well as an adorable video of the 3 Martin kids saying hi to me. Man, do I miss those kids. The best was a video of my church's talent show. I saw my sister, mom, and Grandma Hahn playing "O Danny Boy" on the kazoo, and Mr. Delong singing the same song like only he can do it. It also had Nan and mom doing a great piano duet. The highlight was watching Emily sing a solo accompanied by my mom on piano. It was such a great surprise. She has a beautiful voice. I can't wait to see her this summer.

Today is Sylvester's 64th birthday. His debut cartoon was "Life With Feathers", directed by Friz Freleng in 1945. Since then, he's appeared in dozens of cartoons alongside characters like Speedy Gonzales, Hippety Hopper, Elmer Fudd, and of course, Tweety Bird. A whopping 7 of his cartoons have been nominated for Academy Awards (including "Life With Feathers"), with 3 of them actually winning, giving him more nods than any other Looney Tunes character. Below is an underrated Sylvester gem: Friz Freleng's "The Last Hungry Cat" from 1961. I hope you like it.

In other Looney-Tunes related news, there is a special Chuck Jones tribue/marathon on Turner Classic Movies tonight starting at 8 PM. They're showing a short documentary on him followed by a dozen of his cartoons. My only problem with it is that they're not showing any Road Runner. Chuck Jones is one of my greatest heroes, and I think it would be pretty cool if you watched this. Emily is taping it for me, so I'll catch it when I get back. Here is the schedule:

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.jsp?startDate=03/24/2009&timezone=EST&cid=N

Well, that's it for now. I will be back in a week or so. I'm going to have a great break with my family. We've got a whole bunch of places to hit up. It's going to be fun. I'll talk to you all later! I love you!

"I found grace inside a sound, I found grace, it's all I found..."

First off: how cool is it to see Jody Davis again?! I was very happy for that. I thought he did a great job on the solo. Now then. Michael Tait. I'm going to try and be as fair as possible. I made it through the whole video without crying or laughing, and that's saying a lot. I didn't even make fun of him when he botched the lyrics in the middle. I feel for the guy- he's got to learn and memorize an entire list of songs that aren't his, then he has to perform them live as if they were his own, even though everyone knows they belong to Peter Furler, and have always belonged to Peter Furler. So Tait's got big shoes to fill. Big, bald, white, Australian shoes to fill. And I don't dislike him, I really don't. He made "Something Beautiful" sound pretty good, actually. But it's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this wasn't a cover, and it wasn't a tribute. Peter isn't going to pick up the mic and make it better. This is Newsboys now. I don't like it, but I don't hate it. We'll see where this goes. In August, I'm seeing Newsboys at Kingdom Bound. I'm trying hard to prepare myself for Michael Tait....but it's really hard. BUT they did say that Peter would come back for special shows, and Newsboys has been doing Kingdom Bound for years, so maybe he'll come back for that...I hope so....

In other music-related news, this is going to be a busy, expensive, and GREAT summer for me!

Here are albums coming out this year:

March 31: "Free" / Gavin DeGraw

May 5: "In the Hands of God" / Newsboys

June 16: "Best Night of Our Lives" / Everyday Sunday

Some point in 2009: "21st Century Breakdown" / Green Day, as well as albums by Switchfoot and Editors and maybe Relient K if they get their act together

Also, here are shows I'm currently planning on seeing this summer:

June 17: The Fray at Darien Lake with Emily

August 5: Phil Joel, Newsboys at Darien Lake with Emily (and Megan?)

Also also, here are shows I *might* see this summer, if money and schedules allow:

June 1: Coldplay at Darien Lake with Bocadillo

August 27: Gavin DeGraw in Syracuse (with Emily?)

September 4: Switchfoot in Syracuse

It is my complete intention to exit this summer 100% broke and 100% deaf. I shouldn't have a problem with either.

"in the forest we lie hiding, unmarked graves where flowers grow..."

This is going to be one of those posts where I write it and post it at two different times. Right now, I’m sitting under a tree in the back garden, listening to Frank Sinatra. It’s really sunny and there’s a light breeze. My sleeves are rolled up and I’m periodically chilly, but I know that if I roll them down, I’ll be too warm.

Today has been a lot of fun, and as of right now it’s only 1:43. I woke up after a great night’s sleep and had a good breakfast. The rolls were fresh and hot and the butter melted really easily on them. I stole 4 slices of bread so I could have a couple sandwiches later today.

Colloquy was good too. Our reading last night was all Romantic poetry: Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Dickens, Shelley, Keats, and Coleridge. I was skeptical of colloquy because I was afraid we’d over-analyze the poems. And at times, people did. When they did, I sat there and wrote down lyrics to a Decemberists song. When we weren’t completely picking the poems apart and were just talking about imagery and inspiration and historical context, I participated. It went well.

I made an important decision after colloquy. The only part of the MAG that my friends and I had left was the National Gallery. And this week happens to be extended because of break being next week: the paper won’t be assigned until Saturday and won’t be due until Tuesday, the first day of break. So once we finish the National Gallery, we’ve got nothing but reading from today until Friday. That’s a lot of free time. And I decided that I didn’t want to do the National Gallery today. I’ve been enjoying the work this week, and I wouldn’t mind doing it tomorrow or Friday. It would be fun to do it by myself, too. Not that doing MAG with my friends isn’t fun, I just want to try it by myself. So after colloquy, I told my friends I was going to do my own thing today, and that I’d do the National Gallery later.

I went shopping today. It was fun. It was the first day I’ve intentionally gone out shopping. My headphones died a couple days ago, so it sort of started with that. Tabitha let me borrow her headphones until I got to the electronics store, which wasn’t going to be my first stop. My first stop was a thrift store nearby the Tube station. I bought a big band CD (hence Old Blue Eyes) for £1.49 as well as the UK version of the first Harry Potter book for a pound. I also bought a gift for Emily.

By now, the Tube is easy for me. It’s almost second nature. I took it to Tottenham Court Road and went to Maplin’s, the same electronics store I got my hard drive cable at a few weeks ago. I got a nice pair of headphones for 8 pounds.

I kept walking down the street, listening to music and taking pictures of the sky. There are so many contrails today. I like it. I bet I’ve seen about 20 of them. I took a lot of pictures of them. I was trying to make my way to a Fopp, the indie music store that I had discovered at Cambridge. On the way, I checked out a bookstore and looked around. They had Mark Twain’s Roughing It, but it was more money than I was willing to spend. They also had Matthew Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, but I’m planning on getting it in August when it comes out in paperback. But I did check out their poetry section, and it was a good thing I did. I found The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth for only £4. This thing was the biggest paperback I’ve ever seen- 1082 pages! I couldn’t eat it if I tried (and I did try, but I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough).

I made it to Fopp easily enough and found a CD of U2’s 2001 concert at Slane Castle. I had the DVD of that concert, but I thought it would be nice to have the music on a CD so I could listen to it on my iPod, so I got it. It was seven pounds. I was content and headed back to the FMC, listening to Jon Foreman, the Decemberists, and “The Door in the Air” from the Prince Caspian soundtrack.

When I got back to the Highbury Centre, I put my U2 CD in my computer to upload it into iTunes. But it turns out that I had bought the DVD. Which sucks, because I already had the DVD. I thought it was a CD because it was in a CD case. Call me crazy, but I always thought that CDs went in CD cases and DVDs went in DVD cases. Maybe they changed it and forgot to tell me. Either way, I’ve got two U2: Go Home DVDs now. Yay?

Luckily, today has been so good that that didn’t come close to spoiling it. I was still in a great mood. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grabbed a raspberry yogurt and some crisps, poured some Cherry Coke in my Nalgene, and brought my lunch and laptop in the garden. I had all my food, except for the crisps. I’ll have those after I type this.

Now, it’s only 2:09. After I’m done with this I’m going to do my reading in the garden. Erin Carr is doing the same, and Danny Kim is passed out on the bench next to me. Our reading is from Marx and Engels. Should be interesting. After I’m done, I think I’ll take a nap and read some poetry. Tonight, I have my last service project at All Soul’s.

So. Here are two things I’ve decided I want to invest in. The first a high-quality VHS to DVD burner that allows me to put in chapters. I’ve got a lot of Looney Tunes tapes that I need to convert to preserve the prints for my future kids and grandkids. Digital copies don’t get worn down, but film sure does. So I need to get on that soon. I also want to get a nice big bookshelf. I’ve got so many books that I love, and they all sit in cardboard boxes in the attic. That’s not cool. I need a big shelf I can put in my room so I can display them and get at them easier.

Hey! Guess what?! Today is Eri’s birthday! Wish her a happy birthday so she’ll get mad at me for putting this in my blog.

Hey! Guess what else?! My family is coming to visit in less than a week! I can’t wait to see them. This is the longest I’ve been away from any of them in my life, and I miss them a lot. I’m going to take them to all the fun places and show them London food. I’m pumped.

Alright, that’s enough for now. Goodbye.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

What a Beautiful Day in London Looks Like

Get Thee To A Nunnery

Today has been pretty good so far. The sky is very cool- it's really overcast, like it could rain at any minute. I got up at 8:15 and went to breakfast. Then I took a shower and hung out in my room until colloquy. This colloquy went pretty well for me. I'm pretty sure I got an A.

When colloquy was over, Eri, Tabitha, and I went to the professors' flat to have lunch with the Wardwells. Throughout the semester, they've been inviting students over to their flat for lunch, and it was our turn. I was pretty nervous though. I had never gone over to one of my teachers' houses for lunch before. But it went really well. Dr. Wardwell, his wife, and his son are all really nice. The conversations were good too. It wasn't forced or awkward at all, really. Mrs. Wardwell made cream of broccoli soup and we also had biscuits, carrots, fruit, and chocolate cookies. The soup was fantastic. It was really salty, and they gave us shredded cheese that we could put in it. I had two bowls. It felt so good to have a homecooked meal, as opposed to the Highbury meals or scraps of food that I put together for lunch.

After lunch, the three of us went back to the Highbury Centre and played tennis with Steve Corell for the next hour or so (there's a tennis court in the backyard, next to the garden. Adam and I have a perfect view of it from our room). It was me and Steve against Tab and Eri, but we didn't really keep score. On several occasions, I'd accidentally hit the balls over the fence into the convent next door. So we went nextdoor and knocked on the door and a very nice nun let us into the backyard so we could get the balls.

I was tired and sort of chilly, so I went back to the room and watched a couple Looney Tunes. Because that's just what I do. Then, remembering it was Thursday, I checked my email and saw this week's paper topic:

With appropriate and specific references to relevant selections from this week’s sources, document some of the ways in which eighteenth-century artists and intellectuals embraced and developed themes associated with Renaissance humanism, in particular a focus on human nature and its perfection (along with its many foibles), as well as the reform of society. (By “relevant” we mean relevant to the specific points you think you can provide evidence for and explain in five pages.)

I read through it a couple times, laughed a little at how confusing it is, died on the inside a bit, shrugged, and watched another cartoon. Now I'm in the library. I have a piece of chocolate cake in the fridge, and I'm going to bring it back to the room and watch a couple more cartoons. Then I'll start looking at the paper, I promise. I got a few general ideas in colloquy today, so I have a starting place, at least.

Tonight at 7:30, a bunch of us are going to a concert. They're going to play Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. I'm somewhat familiar with all three of them, so I'm actually looking forward to this. I probably won't want to work on the paper much after I get back, so I guess I should do some of it before I leave. I will. But I still have all of Friday and Saturday too. So I might not get much done today. I don't know, I'll see.

I come home in exactly seven weeks from today. 49 days. A month and a half. Words cannot express my excitement. Just thought you all should know.




An actual ad we saw on the way to the Science Museum. I couldn't stop giggling.



My response to long and confusing paper topics right after they are assigned.

Adam's response to long and confusing paper topics right after they are assigned. I think both of our tactics are more than adequate, don't you?

So. You've probably heard this already, but I'm still having fun with it.. You know Joaquin Phoenix? He's one of my favorite actors. I've seen him in "Walk the Line", "We Own the Night", and "The Village". He was absolutely fantastic in all 3 movies. Well, apparently he's decided that acting isn't for him. He's aspiring to become a hip-hop artist. Yeah. You read that right. Here are links to two videos that I highly recommend, if you want to see how he's doing:

(Joaquin jumping up and down and ultimately falling off the stage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_Ikksg40U

(Joaquin fighting with an audience member and getting dragged away by security)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-SQN18KUds

Good luck to you, Joaquin. Thanks for wasting a perfectly good acting career. Personally, I find the whole thing utterly ridiculous (the beard and hair are especially hilarious). The only thing that keeps it from being 100% hysterical is that I had a lot of respect for Joaquin, especially after seeing him portray one of my all-time heroes, Johnny Cash. I took Joaquin very seriously, and it's a shame that he essentially lost his mind and blew his career.

Speaking of Johnny Cash, I have an idea for a potential tattoo, because I'm 19 and have silly ideas like that. But tell me what you think- and please be serious. Two of my greatest heroes are Johnny Cash and Chuck Jones. Two of my oldest and best friends are Jordan Stengel and Christina Graczyk. Plus, I'm a Christian, and follow Jesus Christ. I was thinking of having a *small* ring of 4 J's and 4 C's going around my arm, like this: JCJCJCJC. (To represent Jesus Christ, Johnny Cash, Jordan, Chuck Jones, Christina) I've been thinking about this for about a week now, and I think it would work. Then again, I did originally come up with this idea late at night when I was trying to sleep, so it might just be a dumb idea. But I really like it. What do you guys think?

"I Got In A Fight With The Stenographer"

Yesterday we went to Hampton Court Palace, which used by King Henry VIII. It was a very, very cool trip. We went through about a dozen bedrooms and dining rooms. There were paintings hanging everywhere. We went in the kitchens and the armory. Cameras weren't really allowed inside the palace, but I took some pictures nonetheless. Most of my pictures are from the massive garden that had dozens of birds, including seagulls, swans, and geese. There were more gardens along the side of the palace, but the one in the back was the biggest, and my favorite. Emily wanted me to post pictures, but I didn't really want to because for as nice as technology and blogs and Facebook can be, I like the old-fashioned way where you take a bunch of pictures and bring them home to show people. That way you can tell them stories about the trip. So I probably won't post too many photos in the future, unless something really cool happen. That said, I really hope you enjoy these. The vast majority are from the garden, but that's because I'm surrounded by buildings and rooms in London, and I was really happy to be back in nature.

The outside of the palace from the front.

To the right is a small courtyard with a fountain.

Astrological clock. Notice how the earth is in the center and the sun is on one of the hands, revolving around it.

One of the side gardens. Because, you know, this place had multiple gardens. This photo is taken through a window from inside, which is why it's a little dirty-looking.

The rear garden. There were 4 or 5 rows of those trees. They looked like mushrooms.

This isn't zoomed in at all - we were that close.

I think that's a magpie. Don't quote me on that. But I know it's not a watermelon.

This pool was put in by Elizabeth II.

Contrails=win

Let's see, what else is going on? Well, Peter Furler is leaving the Newsboys and is being replaced by Michael Tait. Not quite sure how that's going to work out, but we'll see. It's not like he's the founding member of the band and has been singing in it for over 20 years or anything...oh wait, he is.

Here are the grades I've gotten on my papers so far: B+, B+, B+, B-, B+. As of last week, my colloquy grade was a B+. Yay for consistency.

I have been collecting music like crazy here. Since coming to London, I've bought 1 Sigur Rós CD, 1 old-school country music CD (and when I mean old-school, I mean that half of the songs were recorded in the 1920's), 1 Glenn Miller CD, 2 Louis Armstrong CDs, 1 Gavin DeGraw CD, 2 Johnny Cash CDs, and 1 U2 CD. The trick is that sometimes newspapers and magazines give out CDs. That's how I got the Sigur Rós and country CDs. Also, thrift stores are a great way to get cheap music.

I have thought about the Original Pancake House every day for the past week and a half. I think I miss it more than I miss my bed. I need raspberry pancakes and I need them now.

As I said earlier, my family is coming to visit in 2 weeks. That's also when we go on a much-needed break. Right now, everyone is sort of exhausted. Plenaries, MAGs, and readings have gotten noticeably longer. Paper topics have gotten harder and more abstract. These things plus the fact that we've all been living in such close quarters for so long have added up to a lot of bad moods and short fuses. If we can just make it to break, we'll all be able to rest and relax and get refreshed...and then like a month later, I'm home.

Well, right now it's 11:15. I don't really have much else to say, so I'm going to say good night.

"Welcome to the Club and Give Me Some Blood"

I am sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well-earned comforts. There is no salted pork, but the macaroni and cheese casserole is particularly good.

When I say "sitting a field of victory," I mean that I'm currently laying on my bed, listening to Green Day, eating macaroni and cheese casserole from the dinner I missed today, and typing on my own laptop. Finally.

This has been a ridiculously busy week in terms of workload, but at the same time, it's been a great week. I'm not quite sure how that one works out, but I'm cool with it.

Today in particular has been mad busy. To give you an idea: I've been gone from 3 to 11 tonight. And that wasn't even my first trip out. But here's how today started. I got up at 7:45 and went to breakfast and colloquy. After colloquy, I came back to the room and just sort of chilled for a bit. Then I went back downstairs and saw that I had a package! From Houghton! Which meant that my new hard drive came! I ran upstairs, swapped them out, aaannnndddd...got as far as the log in screen because they had to set me up with a new account and didn't give me the password. Fantastic. I tried a few things, my old password, my student ID, my social security number, and the name of the guy who'd been helping me through the process. Nothing. I sent him an email on Adam's laptop asking what the password was.

At noon, the profs' kids did a soloquy and vignette about Doctor Faustus. Both were really good. After that, I was in the library having lunch, when Eri told me I had another package. So I go upstairs, and there's this long, thin package from Grammy and Grandpa! I was floored. It turned out to be a letter that they tag-teamed (Grammy wrote a paragraph, then Grandpa, then Grammy, etc. It was really cute.) as well as a Reminiscence magazine that had an article on Tommy Dorsey. It was really nice, and it made me miss them a lot. It reminded me of this past April when my family flew down to Texas to visit them in their "second home". That was one of my favorite vacations of all time.

Anyways, at 2:00, Adam, Tabitha, and I took the tube to a travel agency to get some more info/ideas about our post-program plans. That was pretty helpful. So far, it looks like the three of us, plus Mary Beth, are going to Scotland and Ireland, then Mary Beth and I are coming back to London, and then America, while Tab and Adam go to Belgium. That's going to be fun. And we're not going to see The Fray as planned, due to money, but if I have the chance to see U2, which probably won't happen, I swear I'd pay almost anything for it.

After the travel agency, the three of us came back to the HC. Adam and Tab played chess and I used Adam's laptop. Still no word from Houghton. At 3:00, we left again, along with Eri, Steve, and Zeke. First we went to a theatre to get tickets to see an opera tonight. Then Zeke, Tab, and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral to check out the architecture for our MAG. It was crazy. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was huge and ornate and gold and glittery and regal and I hated it. But that's another rant for another time. We stayed for Evensong at 5:00, which was alright, if you're into that kind of service. Me, I'm not really sure what kind of service I'm into and why, so it was interesting.

Dude, I just found out that Robin Williams needs heart surgery and had to cancel the rest of his stand-up comedy show. I am not cool with Robin Williams needing heart surgery. Not in the least.

Anyways, after Evensong, the three of us went to Subway and Tesco for food, then made it back to the theatre at 6:30 to see the opera, which started at 7.

This was the first time I'd ever been to an opera, and I'm proud to say that I was in a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a 2-month-old beard at the time. Why? Because I had been out for 4 hours prior to the opera, and I wanted to be comfortable, that's why.

The opera itself was wacky. It was in English, and it was called "Dr. Atomic". It was set during World War II, and was all about Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the atomic bomb. If you think it sounds bizarre, don't worry, it was.

I left as soon as it was over, because I was hungry and wanted to check my email for that password. Across the street from the theatre, there were two people in sleeping bags on top of a sheet of cardboard. I didn't have any food on me, so I kept going. Man do I hate cities.

On the tube there was a blind old man reading braille. It was the first time I'd ever seen someone doing that. His guide dog was a beautiful golden retriever. He got off at my stop. When the train stopped at our station, the dog stood up and started going, without having to be told that it was their stop. She just knew. It was crazy. After we got off the train, I asked if he needed any help. He said, "Lucy will point the way, thanks", and kept walking. I followed them because I had to leave the station as well. I took a couple pictures of them. I didn't think he'd mind.

I came back to the Highbury Centre and checked my email. They had sent me the password. It was "password". Go figure. But my laptop is working now! Yay! I just gotta get my files off Lindsey's laptop, and I should be fine.

After making sure my laptop was good, I went to the library and heated up the dinner that I missed (I asked my friend Natalie to save it for me). It was a macaroni and cheese casserole, and it was good. Then I came up here, threw on "American Idiot", and wrote this.

That's it for now. I'm going to message some people and watch a Looney Tune on my laptop. Then I'm going to bed. Good night.

No Line on the Horizon

So I got the new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon" today. Finally. I've been waiting for it to come out for 4 years now. My original plan was to buy it when I go to Ireland, because U2 is an Irish band. But last month, I was on iTunes, and I saw that if you buy the album on iTunes, you get a bonus song, and if you pre-order it, you get ANOTHER bonus song. So I did. I'll get other cool stuff in Ireland, don't you worry.

I listened to the whole thing tonight. I'm on my second run through it right now. My initial thoughts: it's good. It's not great, not yet. But so far it's been worth the wait. And like anything else, the more I listen to something, the more I like it, usually. And their last album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", is my favorite U2 album so far, so it would be unfair for me to hold this CD to those standards. So yeah, I guess I'll go through the songs real quick.

No Line On The Horizon: This song felt weird when it started, but I loved it by the time it was over. It's VERY different from "Vertigo" and "Beautiful Day" in terms of opening-album-songs. It sounds sort of like "Ultra Violet (Baby Light My Way)", but it also reminds me of "Until the End of the World" and "Elevation". It's bit out there, but I like it. Bono sounds fantastic for almost all of it.

Magnificent: Adam Clayton started this song out so cool, but when the rest of the band came in, it just wasn't as good. I'd heard a lot of hype about this song, and I don't really get it. I mean, it's ok. It's not like it's bad, it was just a bit disappointing. Oh well. It sounded like U2's earlier stuff. It would've fit in perfectly on their "October" album.

Moment Of Surrender: Dude, this song is awesome. It's 7 and a half minutes long and there's an organ. But it's not like a typical U2 song- it's sort of funky. Kind of bluesy. The Edge has a pretty cool little solo, but my favorite part is the vocals. I'll be listening to this song a lot, methinks.

Unknown Caller: I didn't like this song much. It was boring at first, then it just got annoying. The vocals are obnoxious. It's like monotone chanting. And the lyrics are pretty geeky. "Restart and reboot yourself"..."Password, you, enter here, right now"...um, no. Sorry. Try again.

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight: This is one of my least favorite song titles on the whole album. But the song itself is actually quite good. It's...fun. It sounds happy. I like it. I don't really know why. I like the melody. Some of the lyrics are cool, too: "The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear." Watch videos of Bono in the 1990's- you'll know what he's talking about. Jeez.

Get On Your Boots: This was the first single released prior to the CD. I got it when I pre-ordered the album, so I've been listening to it for about a month now. And it's cool. It's definately a different sound for U2. It has one of my favorite bass lines ever. Adam was a bear on this. And the lyrics are really good too. I think it's mostly about terrorism and war: "Night is falling everywhere/rockets at the fun fair/Satan loves a bomb scare/but he won't scare you." I like that. This song probably sounds epic live.

Stand Up Comedy: About 18 seconds into this song, I wanted to punch Bono in the face. Then I got used to it. I never liked it. But I got used to it. I bet I'll like it a bit more later. But for now, it's just dumb.

Fez - Being Born: This song makes no sense. The title doesn't make sense. The lyrics don't make sense. The melody doesn't make sense. But it's not bad. One cool thing is that they incorporate the "Let me in the sound" snippet from "Get On Your Boots" at the beginning. This is not a bad song. I like it. I just don't understand it at all. But that's ok.

White As Snow: For some reason, I pictured this song being similar to the Jon Foreman song of the same name. But it's not. I didn't pay too much attention to the lyrics the first time I listened to this, because I couldn't stop focusing on the guitar. The Edge was intoxicating on this one. They did the thing where they start with just vocals and guitar, and add the drums and bass later. I need to pay more attention to the rest of this song though. I'm sure it's not too bad.

Breathe: This song was one of the coolest songs U2 has ever done. Oh my God. I can't get over it. I'm sure a lot of people hate it, but I love it. Larry Mullen starts out with this sweet rolling drumline, then the Edge and Adam come in with these awesome descending riffs while there's a little piano part in the background. Bono is essentially rapping during the verses, but he pulls it off. Rapping isn't always bad, but in most cases the lyrics are ridiculously awful. I don't really have a problem with rap if it's done right, but I hate the whole hip-hop gangsta thing. Ew. But here they're awesome. And he does sing for the chorus. So that's fine. There is nothing wrong with this song in my eyes. Or ears. Well, wait. At the 3:20 mark, there's a distorted guitar or bass, I can't tell which, that sounds like a dentist is drilling my teeth. It's annoying and uncomfortable, but it works. Then the Edge comes in on his normal guitar, and it displaces it. So yeah. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It might by my absolute favorite, now that I think about it. I'd kill to see it live.

Cedars Of Lebanon: "No Line On The Horizon" opened strangely, and it ended even stranger. At times, it felt like "Wake Up Dead Man". But the song is not addresse to God. And it's not as sad or mad. It seems...bored. Lazy, apathetic. I'm not sure. Bono's like talking during it. It's more like poetry. It's abstract and eerie. It doesn't seem to be about anything, but it makes you uneasy. The weirdest thing about it is how it ends: it just ends! Bono sings/says the last word, and the song is over like 2 seconds later. There is absolutely no resolution at all. I was shocked. I have no clue what to make of this song.

Man, this was long. But you guys should be used to that from me. I ramble. I write like I talk, and this blog was basically me getting my thoughts out for my benefit.

This is not a bad album. It's not as good as U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", "The Joshua Tree", or "All That You Can't Leave Behind", but I enjoyed it better than "Boy" or "Pop". Comparing it's sound and style to another U2 album is hard, but I'd have to say it is sort of like "Achtung Baby" or "Zooropa". That's my initial impression, at least.

I like this album because I don't understand it at all. That's rare. Usually when an album comes out, you love it or you hate it, and you can always tell people why. But this album confuses me, and I like that. It makes it interesting. There are songs that I love on this album, and there are songs that I can't stand on it, and there are songs that I just scratch my head at. But overall, this was a good album. I like it.

Don't do drugs.