Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I'm completely enamored by the Olympics. I get the warm-fuzzy feeling watching these amazing athletes and hearing some of their inspiring stories. I've actually teared up... Yeah, that's how tender I am, or the Olympics are, or something.

So far, some of my favorite moments:

Ohno taking bronze in the men's short-track 1000m. Man, he sure knows how to pull it out at the very last second!
Vonn taking gold in the women's downhill. She was so elated to win that gold, the tears flowed and flowed and flowed...
Lysacek taking gold in the men's figure skating. Talk about a glorious victory!
White kicking ass, flat-out dominating the men's half-pipe. 'Nuff said.
Miller's first Olympic gold in the men's super combined. Go Bode!
Davis/White taking silver, with Virtue/Moir taking gold in the ice dance. Those were some pretty awesome performances.
Nesbitt taking gold in the women's short-track 1000m. She was awesome.

Not to mention the commercials. I kept giggling over the Old Spice Body Wash commercial. And I groove out when the AT&T commercial comes on, with Ohno and the XX. And the "say 'ah'" morphing into "Ode to Joy" for GE... pretty cleaver.

I watch way too much TV during the Olympics. I need to get out of my apartment!!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Zucchi's portrayal of Bathsheba


Gentileschi's portrayal of Susanna and the Elders


Ruben's portrayal of the judgment of Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena by Paris

Van Balen's portrayal of Potiphar's wife and Joseph

Orpen's The English Nude


Rembrandt's portrayal of Bathsheba

Vecellio's portrayal of Adam and Eve


Beside the fact that they're all nude, do you notice anything in particular about these paintings? These portrayals of the human body, particularly the female body?

"She represents love, beauty, purity, the ideal female and the moon...and she's the mystère of jealousy, vengeance and discord, AND, on the other hand, of love, perpetual help, goodwill, health, beauty and fortune." (Zadie Smith, On Beauty)
"...this is what a woman is: unadorned, after children and work and age, and experience--these are the marks of living." (Zadie Smith, On Beauty)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The YA Novel

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to apologize for reading YA literature. Just so you all know, I will never hold it against you. That's all.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hall of Wonders

Yesterday, as I walked to class, I saw the following:

2 pairs of purple shoes...on boys
1 pair of SUPER TIGHT skinny white jeans with lots of holes...on a boy
1 pair of knee-high black leather boots (aka "hooker boots")...on a girl
1 pair of red shoes...on a 70-year-old woman
1 ukulele being played by a completely different ukulele man!
3 guys with hair grown past their shoulders (all wavy, of course, rendering me completely jealous)

Monday, February 8, 2010

Soft Cell: the Musical

I'm sitting in the Hall of Flags.

I hear the "duh-duh" of David Ball's synthesizer in the intro to "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell.

I look up from my reading to see a tall, skinny boy dressed in tight jeans and a black t-shirt holding his iPhone out to a shorter girl in tight jeans and a gray blouse.

The boy starts bobbing his head along to the song. As Marc Almond's vocals come in singing "Sometimes I feel I've got to run away, I've got to get away from the pain you drive into the heart of me..." the boy begins to sing along, making the girl giggle in delight, though the boy is horribly out of tune. "You're crazy," she says as she laughs and lightly pushes him and his phone away, clearly sending the message that she wants him to come closer.

I smile to myself as my ankle and knee take on a mind of their own, tapping and swinging along to the beat. "Take my tears and that's not nearly all. Tainted Love..."

The girl starts singing, too. My imagination says she's trying to sing over the boy, who is still seriously off. I find myself humming softly, trying to help the boy find the pitch.

Coming from the opposite direction, a guy is taping his soda cup to the beat. "Duh-duh." I thought it was a happy coincidence at first, but he did it again, and he was smiling.

"We're almost a musical," I thought. "Someone should start dancing."

Just then, the tall, skinny boy did a little hop-step to the beat, and starting shaking his hips. "Don't touch me, please. Can't stand the way you tease."

I love sitting in the halls on campus.