earth hour. i turned out the lights, computer, and lit candles.
the candle light was nice. did a bit of drawing. was difficult with no music. but did lose track of time and spent a more than an hour. but the computer (my umbilical chord tot he world) called.
don't get excited, this is not gonna tax the brain cells with political stuff. but do get excited if you're a fan of Guns n Roses.
as you may or may not know, Guns n Roses has been working on the follow-up to use your illusion I & II for about 17 years now. plagued by Axl Rose being bat guano crazy, all the other band members leaving, scary new ones coming in (yeah that dude that wore a KFC bucket on his head) and leaving, the album just doesn't seem to be near completion. Axl promised the album would be released by the end of last year. but alas, breaking the heart of many, it never appeared. (if nothing else, gotta give this dude props for procrastination. even i have never been this late!)
Dr. Pepper, in effort to spur Axl into gear and celebrate with the rest of America should the album Chinese Democracy appear by the end of 2008, has promised every person in the US (except for guitarists Slash and Buckethead) a free can of Dr. Pepper. if it happens, i will be on the plane home (haven't had Dr. Pepper in years - am sure i have built it up in my head)
kudos to Dr. Pepper for doing its best to save the world. but i think at this point he should just say whatever and retire, and become a motivational speaker - he's kinda scary and could encourage people to do stuff. i mean can he ever hope to reach the heights of the use your illusion albums? NO!!! those albums are now classics and perfection. sigh . . .
under byen is a danish band that sings in danish. really, dont mock. i also listen to a danish band, Kashmir, that sings in english.
one of the great things is that i understand nothing, so the music just flows over and around. here's one of my favorite songs (of theirs). for this, they have an orchestra (they normally don't). watching it, it's like the singer wasn't even singing, though the performance was live. maybe it is the whole danish thing. enjoy.
yeah, spring is here! officially and otherwise. a few weeks ago it started here in earnest. but first we had to have a snow storm. now its absolutely freaking gorgeous. when i walk outside i feel all joyful (my lump of coal heart actually beats a time or two). the fruit trees are in bloom, everything is that new leaf green (my favorite), and the air smells lovely (flowers overwhelm the smell of exhaust). of course i take loads and loads of pics of flowers. as nauseating as that may be in retrospect, i can't help it.
today i went to easter service at the biserica italiana, a small church full of incense and with a more intimate feel. other than the anglican church, i know not of any place that does service in english, and in keeping with previous tradition of not understaning a thing, i went to one in italian (i was too late for the romanian and too early for the polish). i understood random words but not enough to mean anything. luckily all catholic easter services are essentially the same.
the alter girls were adorable, the priest looked old and fatherly (i find it disconcerting when the priest is young and hot), and the music was lovely. there was one of those old wood and brass organs so the music totally filled up the church. there was also a dude playing some stuff on guitar (half the service seemed to be music of some kind). because underneath it all am not that civilized, i had to restrain myself from clapping every time the guitarist finished a song (no junie, it is not a rock concert!). oh and there was a high nun per capita presence. one held the mike for the guitarist while he sang. i kept on waiting for her to rock out but um . . . i guess nuns dont do that. others hung out being all nun-like
then i broke my fast with some chinese food (egg fried rice) with a side of coke. funny how after 6+ weeks coke is not so tasty anymore (chemically buttocks). afterwards, i sat in a park area and read.
in a few weeks i will celebrate it again with orthodox easter. i hear the country really lets loose (in a celebratory religious way, of course).
lots of love (boy, does easter do funny things to my lump of coal heart!)
see this is why i have to think about these posts before i write them.
on second thought, i dont think it was the tv thing that made me unable to watch the movie of 2001: space odyssey cause i watched tv when i was a kid. it was the stanley kubrick angle. its because i am a pleb, but i dont get his auteur. every kubrick movie i've ever watched, including full metal jacket which i liked the most, has left me disturbed and eh? i took a film studies class in which the teacher was a freaking ginormous fan of Kubrick and we watched some of his movies and were encouraged to watch others. i just couldnt (still can't) appreciate his genius or obliqueness.
Its almost universally agreed that 2001:space odyssey is one of the greatest movies of all kind. but, i think i would have appreciated the movie more if there had been kung fu or something.
a couple of weekends ago (i've been composing this in my head ever since) i visited the Dallas of Romania, Ploiesti. Mention Dallas here, and everyone thinks of the TV show (am told it was one of the few programs they had during communism - like 10 minutes a nite). there is actually a mansion not too far from Bucharest which has been built in the likeness of the one from the tv show. since i never watched the show, i have no desire to go there or even understand the allure - my mom was more into Dynasty.
now when I was there, there was not one with the name Ewingnescu to be found. but i think the relationship is that that Ploiesti has been pumping and refining oil since the mid 1800's.
its a pretty town (the old part) and home of the world famous (in Romania) clock museum. i got two friends to go with me. funnily enough, one used to live in Ploiesti and had never heard of the museum. We also went to a biannual exhibit of printmaking with artists from all over the world. i
it was pretty good, though it isnt an art form that i know much about. it was a pretty cool day spent laughing and hanging out with fun people and just walking and enjoying the town. enjoy the pics below
in the park near the town center, the tables were crowed with men playing chess and backgammon. in some areas, where so many people, it was like a sporting event
Famous church in ploiesti (okay romania is like a land of churches) this one was dedicated to some saint and the heroes of something or another - but not the revolution
inside the world famous clock museum. it was actually pretty cool with lots of clocks from different time periods. some had nifty mechanical bits that created scenes as the time changed. we had to take this picture as the museum makes us pay about $2 per picture taken inside if there are no people in it. there went our chance to make money selling pics of clocks!
Wallachia (this region of romania corresponding to Vlad's old principality) is famous (okay i know!) for the metal roofs. there's been lots of renovation recently on the old buildings, which can totally blind you on a sunny day
total sadness. Arthur C. Clarke passed away a couple of days ago. for those not knowing, he was one of the greatest sci-fi writers ever. he was one of the last generation of sci-fi authors who were actually scientists. i always felt that his, and others, books were a bit more awesome because their foundations were in theories actually understood by the writers.
he had been living in Sri Lanka for the last few decades and i gave serious thought to stalking him (in a really friendly manner, of course) when i was there. i realized that he didnt actually want to meet me. plus, I was too lazy.
he wrote 2001: Space Odyssey which was a pretty awesome book but the movie was a bit too much for me to sit in one place and watch. even as a kid, i think reading was a bit easier to handle that tv watching. Gene Roddenberry said that Clarke gave him the gumption to go ahead and create Star Trek despite opposition. I and millions of other Trek fans also thank Clarke for this.
for me the sadness, is that there will never ever be anything new with his name on it. but then again, he wrote tons of books i can busy myself with.
havent posted in a week. this of course is nothing new. been a bit busy lately. this week we had two . . . .that's right!! two parents evenings. so i get to stay at school for close to 12 hours meeting and talking to parents. so lots of marking to be done and all that good stuff.
now, i seriously love me some bruce springsteen, but i dont think i would kill for him. okay maybe for like great concert tickets and access to the v.i.p. area, i might accidentally hit someone with my car.
however, this woman in australia has taken it to the stratosphere in showing her love and devotion for bruce. Apparently, she stabbed her boyfriend to death for not letting her listen to some bruce. when arrested, she explained that she got tired of not being able to play bruce and indicated that it was unbelievable that her wouldnt let her.
now i support her desire to listen to the boss but 8 years in jail is a little much to pay for the privilege.
i did not make this up. you can find it here at cnn
let me lay on you what happened to me today.
its that time of year where i make attempts at eating healthily (before I realize its too much work and give up). this means cooking and going to the grocery store on a fairly regular basis. i often go to the little one but sometimes there is need to hit the big store for cheaper or hard to find items.
today, after work, i went to Auchan (a hypermarket like wal-mart) which is closest to me and hopefully less pain inducing. boy was i wrong!
i do the shopping. my cart looked empty but its amazing how much it all is in the end. i carried with me my ginormous ikea bag (one of those bags they give you to shop with, but here you can also buy them) to carry my stuff in (saving the environment and landfills and all that jazz). i cant even tell you how massively heavy the thing was in the end.
by the time i finished, it was that time of the evening where everyone is getting off work and/or coming to shop. i would have had to sell my first born child (who has already been promised for some important thing or another i desperately wanted/needed) to get a taxi and the trams and buses were resembling sardine tins. so i opt to take the free bus service provided by Auchan.
i hop on a bus and ask the driver if he stops near me. he says yes, but the closest he gets is still a 30 minute walk away. i am then treated to a ride through some truly unattractive parts of Bucharest. i arrive back at Auchan and ask the driver for the correct bus being more specific about the location needed. he responds by almost deafening me. i know my Romanian grammar's bad and all, but ain't no need to be so loud.
the right bus comes along, and wouldn't you know it? everyone and their mother (literally) hop on my bus and push me out of the way so am pretty close to last (the 50+ pounds of groceries really slowed me down). i climb on, with an apologetic smile on my face since my bag is so gi. suddenly, i hear myself being cursed out buy some woman, i look up to respond and all i can say is "okaaay" cause the vitriol is coming from the mouth of an old (scarily wizened and resembling a raisin) woman. unfortunately, i was taught to be nice to the elderly.
luckily it was the right bus, but its still a 5 minute walk (with every one feeling like an eternity) as i break my back getting the stuff home.
i really really don't ever want to do this again.
