Hahahahahha

Ooops. Got of schedule again... so I'm going to do a really quick summary of things to get back on track.

1) Finished reading The Enchantress of Florence last week. It was delightful to read solely in terms of language, but I take issue with some significant anti-feminist elements of the story... I intend to write a short essay on this sometime very soon. But we all know how well I actually do the things I intend to do, so... we'll see.

2) Started reading Atlas Shrugged; I'm now 125 pages in and... wow, I thought Rushdie was antifeminist. Otherwise, I'm still really confused about the book's philosophy. I've read about objectivism and I feel like I know what Ayn Rand thinks, but... to me it doesn't really seem to be advocating any particular viewpoint at all - except that indifference is plaguing the modern world and, like, destroying EVERYTHING. More forthcoming on this as well.

3) In order to better facilitate drabble-writing, I started a scraps file in notepad so that I'm not looking at a blank page every time I try to write anything. Writer's block has not wholly been defeated, but it is slightly mitigated. It's something. I'm stuck on this one image and I'm trying to figure out how to make a whole decent story out of it. I'll get there.

4) This has absolutely nothing at all to do with knitting, but it is creativity and therefore is marginally pertinent: I've sewn my first throw pillow with piping! I put in for 15 yards of saree fabric (in three patterns of five yards each) on ebay, and I won, and I paid, and according to the seller in India, they've shipped... and it's been ten days. Four more and I'm filing a complaint. This is getting absurd... I'm trying to start an Etsy shop here! No, really, apparently there's a large market for throw pillow covers, and I like sewing and I spend a lot of time watching TV - I figure I can at least try and capitalize on that a little bit. My camera battery's low so it's taking really crap pictures indoors right now, all grainy and stuff, so I'm not going to post one of the pillow just this second - but it's beautiful and you have to look really closely to see where I messed up, and I'm really proud of it. So take my word for it. You have to. It's my blog.

5) Speaking of pictures, I'm putting up four SPTs to cover from... I guess February 16th was the last time I posted? Oh well. See below the cut. I'll take one tomorrow for this week. (Hint: most of the SPTs are actually taken on the weekend.)

6) Music rerating is going well. I took a cue from my dad and decided to play my whole library in reverse alphabetical order, from $$$$ to A.O.K. This helps songs stand out a bit more since I'm ripping them out of the context of their albums, but has the major drawback in that I sometimes hear up to four versions of the same song in a row. (I'm lookin' at you, 405.) The one thing I can tell you I've discovered is that I really don't care at all about 98% of the Smashing Pumpkins' discography. Don't ask why I have it, I won't for very much longer.

7) Speaking of music, I have a couple new artists that I like that I plan on reviewing shortly. Preview: Yeasayer; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros; and MGMT. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party on that last one, but I was purposefully avoiding them because of all the hype and I feel it's now sufficiently passed that it's once again uncool (and therefore legitimate) to listen and be into them.

8) Speaking of MGMT, I updated my resume this week to start preparing for a northward move. This has nothing to do whatsoever with my goal list, but moving to New York has been my number one goal since before graduation, so it merits an update.

9) Daily Show! April 5th, 2010 - Chelsea and I were the first to show up at 1:15, but the third, fourth, and fifth people arrived within the next twenty minutes - so I feel it was completely justified. Um, yeah... they start don't even set up the lines until 2:30, and they don't open the doors till after 4, seat you till after 5, or start filming until 6. But SO WORTH IT. Picture proof below the cut.

10) Ten is a lot. I'm done for tonight. To the pictures!

March 11, 2010 - Absolutely nothing remarkable about this. It is already well-documented that I'm infatuated with my Christmas lights and amateurishly adjusting the aperture settings on my camera.

March 18, 2010 - Yeah, nothing exciting here, either. I... I bought this shirt while Ali was visiting that week? ...Woo.

April 1, 2010 - On the first night of my trip, my friend Katy happened to be in town as well from Chicago, and our friend Mollie was about to be going out of town on Spring Break, so we threw a party. This picture was probably taken shortly after midnight... because I had woken up at 5:30 that morning to catch my flight. Yeah, I was in New York by lunch time. I RULE. Things I missed while passed out: chat roulette, Mollie's ever-entertaining rendition of Soulja Boy, and a 1:30am run to Best Buy. Yeah. That tired.

April 8 - So, basically, the Kate Spade store down in Soho was doing this window display with pinwheels, and since many of them were within reach of street level, and the pinwheels were on the exterior of the windows instead of the interior, people had swiped them - which was probably what they were supposed to do anyway. So Chelsea wanted one, and I wanted to steal one, so I climbed up on the ledge and tried to push it up out of its holder inconspicuously. Surprisingly, they didn't just pop out, they literally had to be lifted up and out, and in this shot, you can sort of see that I've got the green one up to the very bottom of the stick... I couldn't reach any higher while sitting. Clearly, this was hilarious, and Chelsea took my picture. Shortly thereafter, I just stood up and pulled it out, and we lived happily ever after with our lime green pinwheel yay.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

FIRST IN LINE!

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! 25%!

With the uploading of these postcards, I am officially one-quarter of the way done with goal 78! A few weekends ago, I went to visit Katelyn in Tampa and we trekked down to the Dali Museum in St Pete. There was some sort of special event going on that night and they were closing early to set up for it, so we only had about two hours to wander around. Luckily(?), the building is way too small for the museum's collection, and we were able to see just about everything without feel terribly rushed. And, of course, they weren't about to kick us out of the giftshop! I bought two postcards, one real card, and a poster - because it was two dollars cheaper than an 8x10 print of the same painting. So! Clicky clicky for the pretty!

Tres Picos - 1955

I think my favorite part of this sketch is something it might take a few seconds to notice... so take it all in for a second. I don't want to spoil anything. Go ahead, I'll wait.

...Yeah, that orchid is definitely blooming out of his crotch. It's a delightfully feminine representation of the phallus. Coming in a distant second is the leaf-hat-morphing-into-caterpillar. I just love Dali's playfulness, how he blends realities and unrealities and creates a game out of masking the lines.

The Lion Sketch - 1956

ZOMG LIONFACE. This one was not on display this time around, but when I saw it on the wall amidst all the other postcards, I knew I had to have it. He's probably the most adorable ferocious lion of all time, and I love him. These simple pencil drawings, that must have taken a quarter teaspoon of Dali's creative talents, make me intensely jealous of people who have both imaginative vision and the ability to execute that vision in a seemingly effortless manner. Intensely jealous. On Monday I'm going to draw another snail.

Girl with Curl - 1926

According to legend, Dali grew up fantasizing about a Russian peasant girl... three years after completing this painting, he met Gala, a Russian bourgeois girl (close enough) who left her husband to become Dali's muse, wife, object of candaulistic pleasure (fitting for a visual artist). Some say that makes this painting "prophetic" and read a lot into the odd perspective that cuts out the middle ground between the girl and the background landscape. I just like the sensuous curves, the sliver of a crescent moon mimicking the drapery over her backside, and the hints of myfavoritecolorblue in the upper reaches of the sky.

Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at 20 Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln - 1976

Painted for the bicentennial of America, a nation he only lived in for eight years decades before, this 448-pixel-wide version doesn't really capture the true power of this painting. Proportionally, I think you have to be about seven inches from the screen the first time you see it for the Gala part to be more powerful than the Lincoln part - the actual painting is one of those jumbo, wall-sized things, fifteen feet tall at least. I love how it's sorta pixely (before pixels were really a thing), and the little squares on the bottom that separate Gala and Lincoln into separate pieces. I especially love the bloodorange in the sky, textured like water, and how it reminds me of flying down the east coast at sunset.

In sum: Dali = awesome, and far more than the Persistence of Memory (iconic and awesome work though it is), and after they open the new space next January, I want to go back and see the whole collection.

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True Patriotism

I feel like such an awesome liberal today! I did my taxes AND wrote a VERY angry letter to Congressman John Mica about how he's going to vote on Sunday. VERY angry.

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Dear Congressman Mica,

This morning, I awoke to the most disturbing sound my clock radio has ever produced: you and a conservative radio host lambasting the pending health care bill as something that would create too much "bureaucracy" and "ration" Medicare for seniors, and repeating over and over again - without offering any specific alternatives of your own - "there is a better way to do this."

As you can imagine, this was not the way I had hoped to begin my day.

You may be unaware that the average American, whether or not she or he is insured, already experiences an overly bureaucratic health care system that rations care, and, moreover, is in favor of the better way set forth in the Democrats' bill, once informed of the specific provisions it contains. I understand that you, as a member of Congress, are furnished with a very good insurance plan as a matter of course, being an Important Government Figure, and generally have aides and assistants who navigate the paperwork for you. I also understand that as a member of the Republican party, you may be under the impression that the things Mitch McConnell and other prominent opponents to the bill say about it, such as, "Americans don’t want this bill. They’re telling us to start over. The only people who don’t seem to be getting the message are Democrat leaders in Washington," are true. But for you to claim all these positions and then on top of it all, not even offer a reform plan of your own, is ludicrous hypocrisy.

You, sir, are the one out of touch if you truly believe that legislation regulating the criminally negligent behavior of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies is anything less than urgently necessary for the future of our nation. Let's set aside the fact that this bill does not propose an actual government-run health care system (and that you and I both know it). A government system will ration care in an effort to cut costs? A government program will create too much bureaucracy to be efficient? Today's insurance giants deny care to millions of INSURED customers on the slimmest of bases, let alone all those they refuse to cover. Insurance companies, like ALL companies in a free market, are interested first and foremost in maximizing their profits. Please, for the love of democracy, explain to me how a company like Blue Cross or MetLife has less interest in cutting costs (and raising prices) than the United States government. Please explain to me why you believe that delivering platinum care to a few thousand Americans is more important than declaring that ALL our citizens are entitled to a gold standard that is within reach?

You and I agree on one point. There is a better way to reform health care than this. The manner of that reform is where we diverge, in more ways than one: I know what my picture of reform looks like. Congressman Mica, I plead you to recognize the true state of American health care today - see beyond your own friends, family, and campaign supporters to the other Americans who are hurting, physically and fiscally, because affordable health insurance is simply out of reach. You and I both know that each time Congress starts over on health care, Americans suffer - some even perish for lack of treatment. A for-profit health care system is no health care system at all - it is simply another self-interested, for-profit business, one that has no placed in a civilized nation that claims all its citizens are created equal.

The time is now. Please vote in favor of the health care bill on Sunday, for your conscience, for your constituents, and for your country.

Sincerely,

Caroline Leonard
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And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?

Dear Senator Nelson,

My letter today serves as a reminder that there are, in fact, people in our great state who urgently desire health care reform at the national level. I am sure you have received thousands of calls and letters in the last year on this issue, and I imagine a majority of them may have expressed concerns (to put it politely) about the bills proposed by both chambers of Congress and that laid out by the President. Please know that, despite being less well-organized than the tea partiers, we are no less passionate about this issue - and almost certainly more well-intentioned. And, most importantly, we are not as outnumbered as the ratio of letters and calls might suggest. Therefore, I plead that you not only continue to vote in support of health care reforms, but also aid in whatever ways you can to ensure that your reluctant collegues on both sides of the aisle do the same.

Florida is a state long caught between the divisive rhetoric of the two major parties, and myself and others respect and admire you for persevering in the face of persistent pressure to moderate your positions. With health care especially, any concessions to the Senate Republicans are tenfold concessions to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Too long has the true backbone of this country, the working middle class, been held hostage by false dichotomies spewed forth by industry lobbyists and the Congressional representatives who profit from preserving the entrenched system.

You must ensure that Senators from other closely contested states realize that the political capital that will result from the passage of a strong reform bill will compound in years to come - just as failure to reform the system now will compound against those who vote against it when the iniquities of the current system grow unchecked, as they inevitably will. This opportunity must not be permitted to slip away.

Sincerely,
Caroline Leonard
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Artful things

Last night, I was cleaning out my dropbox and realized I never posted the two Jesus postcards I bought two years ago at St Paul's in London, two of the founding members of my collection. For shame!

Also below the cut - an ad for an exhibition on now at the Met. It's about time I kick off goal number 84, and I absolutely adore simple sketch drawings like this. Something about them seems more... personal, more individual... closer to the artist, and therefore more remarkable that they have survived through the centuries. I suppose they're the visual arts equivalent of acoustic songs. Anyway, I'm going to be in New York in less than a month for Spring Break (Daily Show should be completed then, too!) and I am really excited about loading up my ipod with quiet music and going to go absorb the pretty :)



These are apparently part of a larger series called "The Way: The Truth: The Life," by Sergei Chepik, and were completed in 2005. They are the second and third pieces, "The Public Ministry" and "The Crucifixion," respectively. I love how forlorn they are, especially when compared with the rest of the St Paul's decor, which is much brighter and more traditionally "wondrous." (For reference, see #6 and #8 on this post.) It's good to be reminded by these darker works that St Paul's is one of the largest public mausoleums in the world, in addition to a place of worship.

And! Here's the exhibition's ad:

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But trust me, on the sunscreen.

It occurs to me that I have another goal in progress that I have not yet addressed explicitly. One of the most enduring favorite things in my life is "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)," the Baz Luhrmann "graduation song," and, as such, it is the basis for goal 77. The true intention behind this goal is to "try ten different ways to be a Good Human Being." This goes above and beyond simply being nice or pleasant to be around or ambiguously believing that there are Serious Global Problems that Someone Somewhere Should Address - this song tells you how to live, how to be humble and embrace your flaws without getting mired in them. Anyway. Here goes:

1) I'm wearing sunscreen. Really. My moisturizer is SPF 15, and I'm about to put a bottle of sunblock in my car as the serious beaching is about to commence. No lines and wrinkles and skin cancer for me, thanks.

2) Dance - even if you have nowhere else to do than in your own living room. Aside from dance recitals in my youth, I tried very very hard to avoid dancing in public all my life. Despite years of training, I'm moderately ungraceful and - perhaps because of those years of training - I really don't know how to dance, like, at all, without choreography and a few weeks of practice. Luckily, the world contains this magical substance, "al-co-hol," which enables those such as myself to set aside all feelings of shame and uncoordinatedness and get down with our bad selves. I have therefore now danced TWICE in front of other human beings, and, let me tell you, it is very liberating. I greatly desire to try it again very very soon.

3) Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours. I'm... trying. And generally succeeding. Take my word for it. These are goals in progress, right? Right.

4) Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few, you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, for as the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Enough said.

So that's four bits in progress. Arguably, I am also doing well with another, Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're forty, it will look eighty-five. It's hard for me to judge... I mean, I feel like I abuse the crap out of it, but the reality is that I only dye it every two or three months, my straightener is still wrapped up in its cord from moving this summer, and I don't even own a blowdryer. We'll see in twenty years, I guess. Also, technically, I am also following a sixth piece of advice, but... I never read Cosmo in the first place and even when I do glance at the ladies' mags, they certainly don't make me feel ugly. Like, maybe I could lose three pounds and tone my upper arms, but. Definitely by no means ugly. Gosh. Anyway. Progress.

Side note: Angels in America is coming to New York's Signature Theatre for the 2010-2011 season, along with a whole mess of other Tony Kushner plays, and I am so so so excited about it. I swore I posted about it already, because I found out about it at least two months ago, but... apparently not, according to the search I just ran. The Signature says it will be the first large-scale revival of both parts EVER in New York City - I have full faith that it will be the most magical experience of my life.
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Finally....

Here's "The Iceman"! Check it out, for reallll. The philosophical and ethical implications are boundless and I want to discuss them with all of you!

On a semi-related-but-not-really note, I finished reading two books in the last two days, one of which qualifies under the "recommended to me" goal, and one which I just picked up, started reading, and promptly stole from my friend because it is thoroughly awesome.

How I Became Stupid is a delightful reexamination of the age-old plague of ennui that befalls all the youthful intellectuals of the world from time to time. Although it doesn't provide any realistic* "solutions" to the deeply painful experience of being too aware of the world, it playfully deconstructs all the normal alternatives: alcoholism, suicide, and Prozac. Moral of the story: moderation is the key to a (functional) intellectual life. It's not groundbreaking or exceedingly innovative in any way, it's just a legitimately pleasurable reading experience.

The second novel, Identity, seems like a reasonably standard story plot (middle-aged couple begins to question their love because they are really - gasp - questioning their own identities) but is a technical marvel. For instance: it was not until page 150 that I became aware that every few paragraphs or so, the narration switched between past and present tense, normally something that I'm a huge stickler against. But when handled properly, tense change is an incredibly effective way to pace a story. Like most advanced writing techniques, tense changes are best experienced on a subliminal level, to be discerned explicitly upon a second, closer read. Nabokov has the same effect with his use of metaphor: there are certain sentences in Lolita that you need to read over and over again to realize exactly what has just been said. Not because the language is too dense, no - it's more that you've just been lulled into such a sense of bewilderment at the ease and flow of the language that you don't pay attention to the actual words. Since ripping one such example out of context from either book would only negate the effect in question, you just have to take my word for it. And all this is not to say that the philosophical discussions of projecting and mirroring and identity-depending-on-other-people's-perceptions-of-you-as-well-as-your-own aren't valid and equally good parts of the book, just. I wanted to highlight the joyous element of simply reading this text.

Reading these two books at the same time amplified certain themes that have been simmering in my mind lately, and each highlighted certain undertones in the other that... well, I probably would have picked up on them anyway, but the juxtaposition was lovely. Only they both cut pretty heavily into my aim to become a hard-hearted cynic, traversing the world in self-satisfied, misanthropic solitude... stupid need for stupid friends and stupid love and stupid human contact. Blech.

*Re: Realistic solutions.... spoiler alerts. See below.

What the fuck, stupid indie soulmates. That's some fucking bulllllshit. I spent ten years of my life undoing the damage Disney did me as a child, and having my hard won pragmatism battered from all pop culture angles... It isn't enough that Carrie and Big end up together, or Jim and Pam, or Josh and Donna... now the fucking offbeat literature that is supposed to PROMOTE shrugging off all that mass media crap and living your own life has to succumb to the storybook happy ending? Yes, it's very easy to live true love when SOMEONE IS WRITING YOUR SCRIPT FOR YOU.
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