I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; nor the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these, but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
Then to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands.
I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad -- and to travel for it, too.
The wiser, the waywarder.
The Khmer Rouge killed
art, beauty, literature,
and turned the blood and bones
of the creators to dust.
A civilization dismantled.
Truman ended the second Great War,
one so hideous
it was beyond reason and comprehension.
But he ended it
with the blood and ashes
of hundreds of thousands of innocents.
A price beyond comprehension.
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
A thousand cranes flying silently at night,
incinerating in rain of fire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We - forever losing our peace
forgetting our wisdom,
clutching our fears,
and screaming into the night -
we are the lost ones,
creatures of blood, dust
and forgetfulness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know, random connections and really depressing poems, but there is some logic to my rambling. The song is by Dengue Fever, a cover of an old 60s Cambodian rock 'n' roll song by a singer named Sinn Sisamouth. He is believed killed, along with thousands of other intellectuals, artists and academics, by the Khmer Rouge. He was a victim of their biological and cultural genocide, a symbol for all the lost culture, knowledge and art.
Also, I just finished reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, and I understand why it won the Booker. It's brilliant, subtle, melancholy and worldly with only four major characters. The WWII musings stem from that. I dunno. That's how my brain works.
Some lines from English Patient:
"Kip and I are both international bastards -- born in one place and choosing to live elsewhere. Fighting to get back to or get away from our homelands all our lives."
"Quite early on I had discovered the overlooked space open to those of us with a silent life.
A link to the youtube video of the original song sung by Sisamouth:
After making my way through all those other TV shows.. I found the one.
Cute story line... check
Enough sarcasm and whimsy to balance cuteness... check
Dark humor... check
Unrequited love... check
Unconsummated love... check
Murder, mayhem... check
Also posting Beethoven's 7th, Mvt. 2, cause people need to understand why I was obsessed.
*phew*
being a couch potato is tough work...
so far I've seen the full seasons of the following shows:
Chuck - cute leads, implausible but entertaining story line, fun humor. gets a bit redundant after a while.
Moonlight - cute leads, implausible story line again, bizarre happenings, pretty terrible direction at times. an uncomfortable amalgamation of film noir and vampire/horror... takes a while to find its footing, but now it's canceled. whoops.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles - just saw it for curiosity's sake. the girls are hot, the action and special effects are nice. the constant we're-in-danger hum of tension gets tiring. plus, the time traveling paradox hurts my doctor who head.
Secret Diary of a Call Girl - curiosity again, with doctor who's billie piper as the lead character, a London call girl. unrealistic, but entertaining nonetheless. don't mean to be smart but there's a bit too much sex. it's a really weird show.
Right now working on Pushing Daisies to feed my burgeoning Lee Pace addiction. And my GOSH is he hot, and cute, and dorky, and did I mention hot?
All this is funny considering that during the school year the only shows I watched were Doctor Who, Torchwood, Lost and West Wing (on dvd).
What else is funny? How many of the people in American shows are not American... the leads in Moonlight: one's brit, one's aussie; Chuck: the girl's aussie; Sarah Connor Ch: the woman's brit; and Pushing Daisies: lead girl is brit.
Just saw The Fall. Oh, it was beautiful, gorgeous, brilliant, eye-dazzlingly pretty.
The little girl in it was fantastic, as was Lee Pace. The music, the cinematography. I was reading a bit of what the critics have written and as usual I think the critics are cynics with no imagination and rocks for hearts.
I think the film worked best as a fantasy and it showed so many luscious locations, full of epic grandeur, and an almost stark, impossible beauty. The story within the story is meant to be over the top and bombastic.. a story of villains and heroes that one would tell to a child. But it's darker, and they handle the dark secret of the film really well, saving the melodrama for the fantasy story, keeping the reality pure and raw.
The little girl acted her little heart out.. she was just amazing. Her mannerisms, her little quirks and twitches and her large hazel eyes.. every little bit of her was perfect. Lee Pace looked mega hot with eyeliner and those weird huge pants they put him in. Every frame of the movie is visual poetry.. which I wouldn't mind hanging on my wall.
one week...
i will take my lunch to work, not eat out at all
another week...
with no unnecessary food.. no snacking.. no ice cream.. no chips
another week...
no frivolous spending whatsoever... meaning no coffees, no books or CDs, no baubles (heh)
another week...
will walk as much as possible instead of taking the bus
another week...
no facebook! (already started this)
another week...
will leave my iPod at home, because it cuts you off from the world and doesn't encourage human interaction
another week...
i will call people i haven't talked to in ages... because friendship is something that needs maintenance
this one can't be done in a week cause i can't work out every day of the week...
but need to go to the gym more often... use my BU tuition
this one is for the rest of my life... we'll see how long it lasts
get back into reading the news and listening to npr and bbc broadcasts... i'm a f*cking journalist for god's sakes.
i've been spending money like it's going out of fashion.. or some other bad metaphor. but seriously.. time to buckle down and cook at home and only go out when it's really necessary and spend a minimum. i'm already feeling guilty about next semester.
also been watching a shitload of movies and shows. Chuck on NBC is kinda cute. Corny, yes, implausible as well, but cute. It's that dork humor that I love so much. Also.. Hugh Dancy is pretty like Orlando.. prettier in fact.. AND he can act! Too bad he's ignored by the media mostly. Saw the chick flick "The Holiday" but it was a bit boring at parts. Jude Law and Kate Winslet were good.. Jack Black overacted and Diaz was kinda.. eh.
my killer neck/back ache is almost gone.. it's reduced to one small spot on my neck now.. but GOD it was PAINFUL. going to say my summer mantra: Need a Job!
things are pretty awesome to the point that i'm almost bored with all the free time i have. i feel a bit sinful when everyone else has some thing to do. B&N has not called me back yet about a summer job, so i feel a bit nervous. been watching movies a lot lately. went to acton for a few days and that was restorative and fun. hope everyone who gets mem day off had a good long weekend. need some book and movie recs...
so, instead of doing anything productive in the last three days, i have:
rediscovered my love for clive owen in the bmw short films:
found out what the instrument i love in this piece of music is:
[it's the morin khuur, or the horse head fiddle, from mongolia.]
and watched dozens of trailers, including for obscure movies that will likely not release here, like this one:
have been procrastinating horribly.
saw penelope two days ago. twas cute.
saw enchanted a day ago. twas cute, cept the dramatic ending. susan sarandon was gawdawful.
saw noam chomsky today. my friends are awesome. so's amar.
ate a lemon tart cake thing. my housemates are awesome.
have to work on two papers, one article and a website.
oh dear.
just want to watch james mcavoy movies instead.
