Thursday, April 23, 2009

College?

I just had my last college class... ever... tonight. It was a really strange feeling and a pretty strange day.
I had a wonderful lunch with a friend from The Poetry Lounge at this cool Thai place on Sunset called "Toi" which has an awesome rock n roll vibe inside (beatles music and Wizard of Oz playing on old TV sets and Pulp Fiction posters) with an extensive Thai menu.
As I was more interested in a long lunch than my final paper, I was still typing it up a minute before class began, didn't proof read it until in class, and when I noticed I had forgotten to cite four of my sources, just wrote them down in pen on my works cited page.
At least there was a works cited page, right?
I don't think this last college class thing will sink in for a while - I kind of don't want to process it- because I really like college. But I'm sure graduation will be a big slap in the face.

To celebrate (?) the night I'll leave you with two videos. The first is the newest Bat For Lashes single "Daniel" off her new album. I've been listening non stop to her first album in my car lately.



I've been really interested in music video concepts and presentations recently as I just did my final project for my internship on a music video treatment for The National's 'Fake Empire.' Anyway- one of the directors from my internship directed Coldplay's "The Scientist" video, which was the first of its kind, utilizing the backwards storytelling and requiring lead singer Chris Martin to actually learn how to sing the song backwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Kd7IGPyeg

Monday, April 6, 2009

San Francisco

This weekend my friends Rose and Kim escaped with me to San Francisco for the most perfect weekend. It was exactly what each of us needed and I am so grateful to have experienced it.

First of all, I'm in love with San Francisco. I needed to experience a city that felt alive and it was brimming with people and bikes and parks and ocean and beauty. I was completely captivated and spent so much beautiful time alone wandering and exploring and falling asleep in random parks. I felt so very much at peace finally in California and it was such a relief. I have been spending all of this time feeling so displaced in Los Angeles - the sidewalks are so dead here. It feels so empty to me. I needed an escape for a while, a reminder about a lot of things, and this was it. Thank you San Francisco.

Secondly, I got to spend time with some wonderful Berkley and Santa Cruz poets from Cupsi and I was surprised by how much I needed to spend time with them. It was like this delightful force just pulling us on this conversation and allowing us t share poems, and I had a really great time.

Lastly, I am surprised by how little time I have left in California. I have a lot to figure out before I leave and at the same time I don't want to figure it out because it means that College is over. I am ready to be with friends in Boston this summer but not ready to graduate. It's such a confusing and conflicting need and desire.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Civil Rights: Iowa Passes Same-Sex Marriage!

Great news this morning -- Iowa has become the third state in the US to pass same-sex marriage after Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously passed the decision, stating that "the Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution." This is just another step in the right direction and I am so happy this has happened. After the Prop 8 decision in California back in November, it felt like a cloud was hanging over the issue of same-sex marriage and I am glad that people throughout the nation are taking steps toward equal rights.

You can read more about the decision on CNN's website here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/03/iowa.same.sex/index.html

Thursday, April 2, 2009

iTunes

I thought I had posted about this but maybe not...

You can now purchase my album (and REVIEW it) on iTunes! Which is super cool and fun. You can just type my name in the search bar and it comes up. And that's just a sweet things to have happen. Check it out.

In other poetry news --

I was able to do a poetry show recently with a bunch of other L.A. poets at UC North Ridge. It was a lot of fun to hear so many adult poets read after being at Cupsi and to really just relax and listen. I also got paid an awesome $250 to read two poems to a crowd of like 40 people. As I'm super poor this was excellent and much appreciated. But I hope I'm able to keep in touch with some of the poets out here over time because I've enjoyed getting to know people and hear their work.