Blizzard 2K10

I had a great time in the recent Snowpocalypse. It began on Sunday in Flushing, where Hanna and I met up for Chinese food. The snow began falling harder and harder as we drank our noodle soups.



My sneakers were soaked by the time I made it back to the subway. (And my bag was a few ounces heavier after the purchase of a Chinese propaganda film called Troubled Laughter). I made it back to my apartment, got cozy in my bed, and watched All About Eve, which I had never seen.

Then I woke up and walked to work, which was quite an adventure. I thought I could just take my usual route, but most of it was neither plowed nor shoveled. Everyone was just tromping through, making deep footsteps, and looking confused and zombie-like. It was fun.

Since I can walk to work, and I live near both the N and R (which were running decently by the time I needed them), I didn't feel the inconvenience as much as others might have. But I have to agree that the boroughs really got short shrift. For example:

My street: Monday morning

My street: Tuesday night

It took them forever to plow my block, and even now, it will be difficult for many of the cars to get out without doing some major shoveling on the street itself. The trains and buses were so delayed on Monday that one of my co-workers began his journey to the museum at 5:30 in the morning and didn't arrive until 1 in the afternoon. While I know a blizzard is a rare occurrence, we did have fair warning and you'd think the city could respond in a better fashion. Didn't Bloomberg learn anything from Lindsay's Snowstorm?

Merry Christmas!

Things I did for Christmas:

1. Listened to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" on my iPod on repeat.

2. Ate Chinese food with Jews, while we watched a movie, because that's what I'm supposed to do. (And it was a lot of fun.)

3. Drank mulled wine with Sam and chatted and admired her Christmas tree.

4. Remembered Christmases past, namely last year when I was in Harbin with Jessica. I tried to create some celebration, but failed miserably by taking her to one of the filthier restaurants in northeast China.

5. Read the "Christmas" chapter of Little House in the Big Woods. That book has not lost its magic.


Hope you've all had equally joyful holidays!

Pictures of Things

In the midst of work and moving and life, I've been a terrible blogger. Even though there are so many fun things to write and think about! For one, even though I actually don't find WikiLeaks itself that interesting, it's been fascinating to see the feminist community discuss the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange. People like Michael Moore and Keith Olberman can't seem to understand that while the charges are clearly politically motivated, that doesn't mean they're untrue. Kate Harding sums it up pretty well here.

Also, if you've been living under a rock, Don't Ask Don't Tell was repealed. I was really moved when I found out. To be honest, I don't really understand how our government works, so I thought that this thing was dead in the water weeks ago. And now, here it is, repealed. I was ecstatic, and it's yet another thing to add to my favorite website: "What The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?"

Beyond news, here are some pictures of things I look at. It's very Tumblr of me.

James Franco's brother.

Alice Glass, of Crystal Castles.

Beyoncé.


Rex Manning Day.

Little Edie Beale.

Michael and Tobias.

Bros Icing Bros

Last week, my dad and I went to see a Rangers vs. Islanders game at Madison Square Garden. It was the first time I'd ever been to Madison Square Garden, and my first hockey game. It was truly awesome. Hockey is the kind of sport I like. It's fast-moving, beautiful to watch, easy to understand, and violent. The players got into lots of fights and it was all very entertaining.


The fans at the game were extremely devoted, and the experience reminded me of a National Film Board of Canada animated short film, called The Sweater. It's a really nice story, but I think Roche Carrier's voice-over is what does it for me. I love the way he pronounces everything, especially "Maurice Richard." Ah, to be a young Quebecer!

Learning To Love You More

I've always felt torn about Miranda July. On the one hand, when I was in college, I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know and didn't like it. It felt too irony-laden and hipster-ish and generally unreal. Then I saw her short film, Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody? which was creative and funny and a little sad. Then I read her book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You. Half of the stories fell flat in that clever, post-modern way that I have trouble relating to. Yet, half of them were really moving and wonderful.

Then I forgot about her for a while, until I recently browsed through Learning to Love You More, a book of assignments she and another artist gave to the general public, via this website. The results are posted on the website, and subsequently, were put into a book.

The assignments are so, so, so great:

1. Recreate a poster you had as a teenager

2. Photograph a scar and write about it.

3. Take a picture of your parents kissing

4. Write the phone call you wish you could have.

5. Make the saddest song.

Tonight I decided to complete Assignment #32: "Draw a scene from a movie that you made you cry."

I drew a scene from an admittedly cheesy movie, Riding in Cars with Boys. Whenever it's on television, I end up watching the whole thing. The last scene of the movie, where Drew Barrymore's father picks her up and they drive home, listening to the Everly Brothers, always makes me cry.

I Can Do Anything Good

Sometimes you get down on life and you just have to watch Jessica's Daily Affirmation for the fiftieth time.

Movin' Out

So, it turns out that if you do a Google image search for "dream home" you get a really gruesome-looking Chinese horror film. According to the internet, it's a violent and grisly critique of the high prices of Hong Kong real estate.

Awesome.

The reason I even conducted the search in the first place was to celebrate my new Astoria apartment! I officially got the keys today from the nice-but-frazzled tenant who was moving out, and the friendly super, who speaks very little English. The next step is painting the walls a fun color and getting furniture and attempting some semblance of design. All my design-minded friends, I will be soliciting advice from you in the coming weeks...

Things I'm Thankful For

Childhood books, green apples, Amy Poehler & Tina Fey, the feeling of my town in autumn, good health, the fact that I like my job, public transportation, my family, travel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, people being kind to one another.

The Internet, The Whitney, my year in China, my wonderful grandmother, the state of Michigan, good friends (near and far), Clueless, singing along to songs in my mom's car, The Mountain Goats, old typewriters, subcultures, gay art-scene bloggers, certain parts of Judaism.

Romance, popcorn, having Barack Obama as president, dancing, my baby cousin Sam, home movies, financial stability, my education.

And lastly, America. It can be a perplexing, awful, racist, sexist, hypocritical place, but it's also beautiful, mesmerizing, diverse, and thrilling. I am thankful to live in America. I am thankful that I am free to publish this blog. And I am thankful for my readers. (All six of you.)

Stampede Kills Hundreds in Cambodia

According to this New York Times article, the Prime Minister called it the nation’s worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge.

It's interesting - the connection you feel to a place after you've been there. I was only in Cambodia for a week, but every article or story about it jumps out at me in a very different way now that I'm back home.

The Hunt Part II

The Hunt is over!


While I'm too superstitious to really feel as though it's happening, last week I signed a lease and forked over some cash, and I am going to be moving to Astoria in early December! While it will be hard to leave the home-cooked meals and the fall air of the suburbs, it will feel good to not be living with my parents by my 25th birthday.

Things I Did In Schenectady

1. Visited my friend Liu Xin a.k.a Lucy Liu

On Sunday I drove upstate to see Lucy, my friend from Dalian, who is currently on a Fulbright teaching fellowship at Union College. The drive was beautiful and traffic-free, seeing as it was 8:15 on a Sunday. It's easy to become NYC-centric, but whenever I explore the rest of New York, I'm struck by how beautiful and awesome it is. And it was great to see Lucy, who was so instrumental in my having a wonderful year in China.

2. Ate in the cafeteria

Before we did anything, we ate brunch at one of the campus cafeterias. All the college kids were decked out in Union gear, lining up for food, and shouting about how drunk they were last night. "I totally blacked out." "Oh my God, you were soooo wasted." I was unimpressed. There's nothing more boring to me than hearing how drunk someone was the night before, unless they did something interesting while drunk, like get into a fight or steal a boat. That said, the food was pretty good.

3. Checked out the campus

Union is small, pretty, and quiet, especially on a Sunday.

4. Saw some great art

After walking around and doing some cartwheels, we checked out the Nott Memorial, a beautiful and bizarre dome in the middle of campus. The building housed an art exhibit called Critical Stitch, which "engages and critiques a gamut of social, cultural, and political issues using needlecraft." I loved it. This one is called PMS Quilt:

Thank You X7

Christopher Dodd

5. Explored the Stockade Historic District

Schenectady is like many cities and towns in upstate New York, in that you can drive around and see what it must have been like when it was in full swing, maybe eighty years ago, but is now in a period of stagnation and decline. While I certainly don't want to romanticize joblessness and poverty, there is always something eerie and magical about empty, ghost-town Main Streets that appear to be stuck in time. (Too late! Romanticized!)

That being said, Schenectady has a well-preserved and interesting historic district, which was fun to explore.

6. Played school

7. Went ice-skating

I'm a terrible ice skater, but I forgot how much I love it. It's hard to find cheap places to skate in New York, but there are a few in Flushing and Long Island City, if anyone wants to go with me this winter.

8. Shopped at the Asian Market

Mark, Lucy's friend, drove us to an Asian grocery store in Albany, which had a variety of great offerings, from Tsingtao beer to Pocky sticks to cabbage to frozen dumplings.

9. Made hot pot

We picked up some hot pot ingredients, which we took back to Mark's apartment in Amsterdam. It brought me back to China, which felt great, since we often went out to hot pot for special occasions throughout the year. My plan is to try to do it at home one night, but no guarantees that I'll actually get my act together enough to go through with it.

10. Drove home

By the time we had eaten our hearts out, it was close to 9 pm. I chugged a Diet Coke (I'm pretty hardcore) and began my 3-hour journey home, which was powered by Fever to Tell by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a jumbled mix CD I made. It had some good songs on it, but I found myself blasting "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on repeat whenever I started to fade. All in all, a wonderful trip. 谢谢纽约, 谢谢 刘鑫, 谢谢80's的音乐!

Be right back.

I have lots to report! I'll be back soon. In the meantime, enjoy The World's Most Generic News Report, stolen from Tae:

Ben Shahn

Dig Those Mellow Kicks

In addition to a great pizza place and a windowless strip club, I'm lucky enough to work around the corner from a truly excellent Salvation Army. I had a little time to spare the other week, so I spent the early evening browsing through denim vests and old prom dresses, hoping to strike fashion gold. (I ended up with a very practical and comfy blue zip-up sweatshirt.) For 99¢ I also got this book:


From the back of the book: Much of the slang popularly associated with the hippie generation of the 1960's actually dates back to before World War II, hijacked in the main from jazz and blues street expressions, mostly relating to drugs, sex, and drinking. Why talk when you can beat your chops; why eat when you can line your flue; and why snore when you can call some hogs? You're not drunk - you're just plumb full of stagger juice.

It's been pure pleasure to read, in a time-travel sort of way. Here are some favorite entries so far:

Make with a mouthful of hi-fi - Sing me a song

Heavy sugar - A large amount of money

Face like the elevated railway - Ugly

Face like a Russian flag - Embarrassed

Mountain dew - Bootleg liquor

I feel like Death Valley - I'm thirsty

Dixie fried - Drunk
"'He hollered 'Rave on, children, I'm with ya. Rave on, cats,' he cried.
'It's almost dawn and the cops are gone, let's all get dixie fried..."
- From the rockabilly recording "Dixie Fried." Carl Perkins, 1956

Static - Complaints, noise
"Hey, that's enough static out of you."
- Station cop to James Dean, from the film Rebel Without a Cause, 1955

Deep-sea diving - Oral sex
"He's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrong
He's a deep-sea diver, with a stroke that can't go wrong
He can touch the bottom and his wind holds out so long."
- From "Empty Bed Blues Part 1," Bessie Smith, 1928

Halloween 2010

Gayle (Jukebox from 1997), Me (Norma Desmond), Allison (Nicky from Big Love)

The Hunt

If you have talked to me in the last few months, you know I am looking for an apartment. It turns out that looking on one's own is exhausting, especially since I'm working five days a week and commuting from the 'burbs. It also doesn't help that I'm a) super picky and b) horribly lazy.

All this searching can't help but remind me of one of my favorite New York Times features in the Real Estate section: "The Hunt." I read it every week. It follows someone and their search for the perfect home, whether that be a brownstone in Park Slope or a co-op in Flushing or a penthouse on Central Park West or a shared apartment in Williamsburg. Everyone's stories and needs are different and it makes for a good read. I half-jokingly said I would e-mail The Hunt and see if they would follow me on my journey, but I figured it would be easier to document my Goldilocks-type search on the blog. So here goes, for the realty-minded.

1.
Two-bedroom apartment in Prospect Heights
Pros: It had high ceilings and one wall was painted a funky color. One of the bedrooms was huge. Decent location.
Cons: Pretty expensive for such a small space. The other bedroom was teeny-tiny: the current resident was only using it for storage. The kitchen was weird and facing the bedrooms. And to tip it off, the broker said the apartment complex's management company might reject me for not having a roommate yet, and not having a higher salary.

2.
One-bedroom apartment in Astoria.
Pros: Huge! Nice-sized living room and kitchen. Really small bedroom, but I mean, I'm just sleeping in there. Pretty close to the Astoria Boulevard N/Q stop. I would have my own place without sacrificing space.
Cons: Stairways/entryway smelled really strongly of cigarette smoke. The floors were all carpeted, which was meh. (What can I say? My last two apartments had wood floors. I'm spoiled.) The house was pretty much underneath the highway, which felt sketchy. And ultimately, it was on the upper limits of my price range.

3.
Studio apartment in Astoria
Pros: Cheap. Wood floors. Really good location.
Cons: They called it a "walk-in" but it was a basement apartment. There were windows, but I still felt depressed being in there. Maybe because the guy who lived there hadn't done much but strew his stuff everywhere, but still. I want to feel happy in my place, even if it's small.


4.
One-"bedroom" apartment in Prospect Heights
Pros: Great location and really close to my friends. Huge! Painted walls! Real kitchen.
Cons: It was in a converted brownstone-type thing and none of the rooms were bedrooms. They were just weird rooms. I was totally into that, but then I noticed that they had built the bathroom out of some cheap plywood-type material, the apartment was filthy, and I could hear the neighbors like they were standing next to me. I'm not particularly sensitive to sound, but the walls were way too thin.

So that's where I am right now. I haven't included all the times that I've taken the subway somewhere only to find out the place has been rented or the broker doesn't have the key or the person isn't answering their phone. It's starting to feel like I'm going on a date once a week, knowing full well that the dude is going to stand me up. I'll keep you updated, loyal readers. And hopefully someday be able to have you over for a teeny-tiny housewarming party.