aaronwk

2011 Music Lists (2)

2012-01-04T00:49:00.004-06:00

Favorite Albums of the Year #10-6

10. Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil

Ranking among the most accessible collections in their run of great albums, Deerhoof still hold true to their sprightly garage rock sound. At this point, I’ve stopped wondering whether I’m going to enjoy their releases or not: just purchase and enjoy. Satomi Matsuzaki’s youthful vocals continue to be counterbalanced by other band members’ chimings-in, which lends the band broader emotional dexterity. Consistent, inventive and playful. This is Deerhoof.

9. Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation

This series of warm-blooded broodings flickers best in interior spaces: hollows, hallways and nestled dens. However, I feel confident that, given the ability to embed speakers into the ground, this album would thaw my wintery yard over 42 minutes. As such, it’s been a grower for me over the cooler parts of the year, and its soft melodies have soundtracked many early winter sunsets.

8. Real Estate - Days

Can my catalogue possibly hold another guitar-driven indie band? Yes, apparently. A good jangle here, some wholehearted melodies there, and you’ve got Ways. Standout “It’s Real” is a top five song-and-video of the year both for combining its theme (love’s sobriety) and sound (textbook jangle rock) with the joyous memories of family dogs. These guys may be LATFH material, but they’re also a kind of Shins Light – and that ends up not being such a bad thing at all.

7. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Tao of the Dead

It’s been nearly ten years since 2002’s once-in-a-decade burner Source Tags and Codes. Since then, the Trail of Dead have received a couple of second looks from me, but nothing has (nor could ever) come close to that enduring record. It’s time to recognize that even though they may never repeat that, they shouldn’t be expected to – and furthermore: this album rocks pretty damn hard and without some of the overwrought tendencies they’ve become known for. Rocking and getting rocked: this defines our relationship. That’s how it should have always been.

6. Wilco - The Whole Love

After a forgivable misstep in the eyes of many (2009’s Wilco: The Album), Wilco once again cement themselves in my mind as one of the most consistent bands churning out albums today. I keep wondering just how deep Jeff Tweedy’s song well can reach, cause he’s still pulling out gems (“I Might”, “Born Alone”). The biggest, though, is the 12-minute acoustic closer, “One Sunday Morning.” Like a 12-mile drive down a sun-baked gravel road, the scenery doesn’t change much, the sounds consistent, the hills rolling in rhythm, an apex on the horizon only opens up to more of the same, vast and unending. “One Sunday Morning” weeps softly with well-earned laments about religion, family and death. Nearly 20 years in, Wilco show no signs of letting off the gas.

2011 Music Lists (1)

2012-01-02T10:42:00.007-06:00

Songs I loved on albums I didn't:

"Me Gusta La Noche" - Adrianigual (from Éxito Mundial)

Everything I know about Chile I learned from Adrianigual and this video. And Pablo Neruda. ...And Diamela Eltit. Ok, so I know some things about Chile, but this song/video opened a Whole New World for me. They pose a cross-cultural question: are these guys heroes of the uncool or just coolyears ahead of everyone? I always sensed that there was more behind the Latin music curtain, but never something so fresh and perfectly odd. Song and video of the year on a disappointing album.

Atlas Sound - "Mona Lisa" (from Parallax)

Expectations were high after Bradford Cox's excellent Logos (2009), and Deerhunter's stellar Halcyon Digest (2010). Parallax didn't resonate with me as strongly, but a couple songs stand among my favorites from his catalogue. "Mona Lisa" putters along sweetly for three minutes. The weightlessness of the acoustic verse and chorus folds nicely over a middle section of warm electric strums. Hits me right in that indie rock sweet spot.

Battles - "Ice Cream" (from Gloss Drop)

I'm overwhelmed by this band. Even at low volume, the sheer intensity of every sound coming out of the speakers threatens to deafen. At higher volumes, you're just bringing new epileptics into the world. With this in mind, it hardly seems fit to call "Ice Cream" a "song." It's more of an experience. As rough as the first 50 seconds are, they appropriately introduce the onslaught of noise waiting on the other side. This is aural caffeine.

Neon Indian - "Polish Girl" (from Era Extraña)

Alan Palomo apparently isn't the best of singers, but he's found a place for himself in the world of electropop. The futuristic video pairs well with this robotic jam, whose unfolding synthesized layers grow in warmth from an icy intro - aided by Palomo's breathy, falling melody. I like. The rest of the album's actually pretty durn good, too.

Young Galaxy - "Peripheral Visionaries" (from Shapeshifting)

I heard this song on a blog and found its infectious groove hard to shake. The soft pull of bongos, wavy synth, bouncing bass and some delicate riffage sets you drifting past a verse/chorus before soaring vocals and newer, moodier riffage takes over. Then a stadium-sized coda?? The rest of album failed to live up to this single, but Young Galaxy nailed this song.

Costa Rica

2011-06-12T22:29:00.004-05:00

"¡Pura Vida!" says the teacher.

"¡Pura Vida! ¡Pura Vida!

Everything is Pura Vida!

Hear, oh you streets!"

The sun rises and the sun sets,

the ocean and the gulf nestle,

the rocks lie and trees wave,

the leaves grow eternal green.

"¡Pura Vida!" says the teacher.

"¡Pura es la Vida! ¡Santa sea la Vida!

Listen, you wanderers of earth!

Be understood, you mysteries!"

What is Pura cannot become imPura.

He who knows Pureza has Vida.

It was Pura long before the word.

It will be Pura long after all words fade.

"Pura, Pura, Pura es la Santa Vida!"

What I Know Now

2011-04-29T22:36:00.004-05:00

This is an attempt at retrospective musical analysis, specifically to enshrine a few of the artists that I've recently uncovered that did not form part of my recent listening diet. The most significant musical landmark is Davila 666, a Puerto Rican indie garage rock band that flat out rocks. Following the release of their excellent album Tan Bajo this year, I began to peruse the internet for reviews and stumbled upon clubfonograma.com, a site that specializes in reviewing and promoting independent Latin music. A flood of new music soon flowed downhill into my eardrums, so I've only just scraped the surface of the thriving Latin indie scene that I've been wanting for years.

Café Tacvba - Cuatro Caminos (2003)

Released in 2003, this album plays like a time capsule of best indie rock of the past two decades. Often irreverent and straightforward, with an equal dose of genuineness, this album holds its own as a monument to off-kilter rock/n/roll Mexico style. The particular flair of the singing style affords enough versatility to be able to include such tracks as "Eres" and "Cero y Uno" in the same cohesive body. Fresh and accesible, I can't believe this album is almost a decade old.

Javiera Mena - Esquemas Juveniles (2006)

Her voice is weak, her style is shamelessly retro/hipster, yet Javiera Mena has a trump card: she means every bit of it. After my first listen through of "Al Siguiente Nivel," Mena's major single from the album, I felt like I'd heard an inspired, once-in-a-generation claim that I couldn't help but embrace. She stamps the end of the song's chorus with "This is going in the direction of my generation, which is going to move on to the next level," and, cynic that I am, I was helpless to oppose her anthem despite the retro overkill and synthe-saturation. She's got my ear. 2010's "Mena" wasn't quite as revolutionary, but it still makes Mena an artist that I'll be following for some time to come.

Cass McCombs - Catacombs (2009)

This album was on my year-end list for 2009 in the 9th spot out of 10, so it may seem strange to speak of it in the same breath as these newer-to-me albums. All I can say is that this album refuses to leave me alone. I walk down the street and find myself humming a melody, pigeoning my head forward and back to a riff, or concentrating on a specific lyric's meaning. It's a collection of songs that are sarcastic, clever and soulful, all while being just catchy enough to keep my interest - like that pinch of salt that seems to pull all the flavors together. There is a palpable world-weariness throughout the songs, leaking out through the restrained sincerity of McCombs's voice. Good song: "You Saved My Life". Fun song: "The Executioner's Song".

Odisea - Odisea Odiseo (2010)

These guys (this guy) sound not unlike a Chilean version of Scissor Sisters, employing plenty of hooky poppy dance-y "hooky dance-pop". "Cabros" is the single and standout, but there's a whole summer's worth of fun crammed into this one. Lucky I found it before the heat did this year. Now I'm ready.

On patriotism and USA soccer fandom

2011-03-26T12:06:00.004-05:00

So I've never put on an american flag poncho, unlike formidable patriot Kid Rock. I've probably never bought a flag in my lifetime. The only times I remember donning patriotic apparel or chanting things like "U-S-A," are when I get riled up to see the USMNT (United States Men's National Team) play. This could be part of a larger series about patriotism in general, but I mainly mean to address sports today.

I own two USA shirts, one is a jersey and the other a vintage T from the '84 olympics in L.A., but I wonder: does this make me a minority in my country? I wonder how many patriotic articles of clothing my peers own. I wonder if they're ever worn, additionally. Part of me thinks there must be something wrong with that, but I'm also fairly certain that I'd fall on the "more patriotic clothing" side of the divide.

When standing for sporting events to honor the flag I feel strange. Two equally powerful thoughts run through my mind simultaneously: 1) Honor the fallen soldiers. Do it. Just think about them. Think about the suffering and how they contributed to your freedom, Aaron. It might not make a lot of sense, but just stand there and THINK. Think think think and think. Thank them from the inside of your brain. .....There. See? Easy. 2) You are opposed to war, so think about what the country means to you in other ways. Think about how hard life would be elsewhere, or something. Yeah, think about that. Get all of the cerebral frustrations out of the way and just think that this place is great. Think it!

You see, I have some misgivings when it comes to being proud of my country, yet I'll turn out for any USMNT match with a flag-bandana around my neck and a redwhiteandblue jersey across my chest.

In my time in Spain and the rest of Europe, I learned to speak Spanish first, even in the middle of Belgium where it was certain no one spoke the language, just to distance myself from the hailstorm of incursions and assumptions against me that were often the result of realizing they were speaking with an american. The man who yelled "Bush is Hitler!!" two inches from my face didn't alter my already dissatisfied view of our president at the time, but he did make me wish I were Canadian, if only for the normal conversation we would instead be having.

All foreign experiences aside, when I consider how much I care about the USMNT, I am reminded that my passion has grown because of the USMNT's underdog status. As americans, we're underdogs in almost nothing. How unexciting does the olympic medal count become when we continue to sit atop it? Isn't it more of a story when we aren't leading the standings? To reduce my/our patriotism or lack thereof to sports would be foolish, though. The reality is, for decades we have sat on top of the leader board of the world as well. Since Britain began to fade as a world power after WWI, it's been the U-S-A's party to reign over.

My lifetime has been an experience of this hegemony, and the centrality of my country on the world scene has only slightly shifted. Things may be changing little by little, but that is beside the point: everyone loves an underdog. My country hasn't been an underdog since I've been alive - neither in the sporting sense nor the political/socio-economic sense. The USMNT is one of few (and probably permanent) refuges for the underdog lovers in this country. There's just not as much joy in watching your country's teams accomplish what they should be able to accomplish at the olympics when compared to watching Landon Donovan bury the loose ball in extra time against Algeria at the World Cup. If we were once a nation that claimed the underdog spirit as a fixture of the american way (i'm thinking the Revolutionary War here), that spirit has long dissipated in almost every international arena but soccer.

So tonight I'll go wearing my shirt to watch the USMNT play Argentina, no longer wondering why I only bear these colors for this particular event: the spirit of the underdog still lives.

Words

2011-02-21T22:38:00.009-06:00

In closing his chapter on "Corners," Gaston Bachelard remarks extensively on the spacial qualities of words. The Poetics of Space has been a very enjoyable read so far, and there's this small section that I will likely read and reread for years to come. So I'm gonna write 'bout it!

My love of words and language is still in its infancy. I have yet to learn Latin, French or any other non-latin alphabet language. This text put forth an as yet unimagined understanding of words that involves their spacial properties:

"The intellectualist philosopher who wants to hold words to their precise meaning, and uses them as the countless little tools of clear thinking, is bound to be surprised by the poet's daring. And yet a syncretism of sensitivity keeps words from crystallizing into perfect solids. A new environment allows the word to enter not only into one's thoughts, but also into one's daydreams. Language dreams.

...We find ourselves experiencing in words, on the inside of words, secret movements of our own. Like friendship, words sometimes swell, at the dreamer's will, in the loop of a syllable. While in other words, everything is calm, tight. Words--I often imagine--are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common-sense lives on the ground floor, always ready to engage in "foreign commerce," on the same level as the others, as the passers-by, who are never dreamers. To go upstairs in the word house, is to withdraw, step by step; while to go down to the cellar is to dream, it is losing oneself in the distant corridors of an obscure etymology, looking for treasures that cannot be found in words. To mount and descend in the words themselves--this is a poet's life. To mount too high or descend too low, is allowed in the case of poets, who bring earth and sky together. Must a philosopher be condemned by his peers always to live on the ground floor?"

Language furnishes our lives. It allows us to explain away the day, to communicate pain and to dissect the nuances of all that existence brings our way. The nature and function of language as a human tool has often kept me daydreaming semiotic theory instead of whatever I would have otherwise been doing. But to speak of words themselves as having interior space--that is, etymological, poetic and generally malleable space--is a strange yet completely understandable thought. There is always a past beneath the linguistic dust (the cellar), as revealing as it may be dormant. And often, we use words beyond their literal meaning (going upstairs), knowing we have taken a step away from the word itself, but afforded no other morpheme that both speaker and hearer could agree upon.

The final lines of the text are perfect in their explanation of the function of poets and poetry in the world. They are the great stretchers and shapers of words, the ones who furnish both our waking and sleeping dreams, and it is because of this that they may be the ones most worth our ears' attention.

My Favorite Albums of 2010 (3)

2011-01-16T18:08:00.008-06:00

See previous posts for:
10. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
8. Women - Public Strain
7. Pomegranates - One of Us
6. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
5. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Part 3:

4. Caribou - Swim
I recognize that I am predisposed to love Dan Snaith's (aka Caribou) music. Ever since 2003's Up in Flames made me weak in the knees (read: ears), I've anticipated and mostly cherished each release since as if it were nectar from the gods. Swim threw me for a bit of a loop, though. I didn't anticipate the mutation of Snaith's song sense toward a dance-ier, more angular direction as in tunes like "Found out" and "Sun." What I've enjoyed so much about past Caribou albums is the saturation of melody. Songs like "Desiree" or the more psychedelic "Hendrix with KO" pushed the melodic elements to their limits. Restraint, or, perhaps more precisely, standoffishness, did not appear much in Snaith's repertoire before. Upon hearing the first single, "Odessa," I was skeptical about an entire album of this "watery dance music" (as Snaith has aptly called it). Later, after several listens through, I found that the more economical sound of the dance-ier tracks like "Sun," "Leave House," and "Odessa" left room for the more melodic-leaning tracks to stand out. "Kaili" swirls colorfully, growing and retreating, dancing between the ears, yet always spinning away. Listening to the "chorus" in headphones is an out-of-body experience, and the entrance of the saxophone near the end does inexplicable things to my body: I twitch, I shake my head, I squirm, I breath deeper... exhaling now - anything to FEEL all of this song. It may be my favorite song of the year. My hair stands on end; chills spring up and down my spine. "Lalibela" meditates further on "Kaili"s excellent melody. "Jamelia" reaches similar heights, climbing upward, surging chaotically before suddenly receeding. I cannot explain my connection to Snaith's music, but it almost always makes sense to my ears. It gets me, and I it.

Must hear: "Kaili" Other highliths: "Odessa," "Sun," "Leave House," "Jamelia"

3. Fang Island - Fang Island
"Fun" is not a word I have ever associated with shredding prog-metal bands, but there's no mistaking the significance of the distant snapcrackling of fireworks as the album begins: Fang Island are here to celebrate. Fang Island have described their music as "everyone high-fiving everyone." Pick any song here, and you'll listen to a moment or two that made me jump off my couch, whip my air guitar around my back, catch that air guitar and go down on my knees in total RAWK OUT MODE. It's an instinctual reaction. This album was made for guitar hero; it makes you feel like a rock star. I tried to control this response, but no: traveling with the fam in the car during the holidays did not stop Fang Island from sending my entire body into rock out mode alone in the back seat. Yes, I am 28. Yes, my parents asked what was going on, but I don't think the metal fists I showed them really said much. You try listening to this circus of high-flying guitar shredding, death-defying drumming and lion-taming jams. It's not hard to imagine the band smiling their way through all ten tracks. The only speed they know is EPIC-speed. Tenacious D must love these guys. Let there be rock.

Must hear: "Welcome Wagon" Other highlights: "Daisy (fav video of the year) " "Sideswiper," "Davey Crockett"

2. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

What a weird album! Why do I like this so much? At some point during my first listen through Pet Sounds, I remember thinking that I was experiencing timeless music. A scroll written in a strange yet familiar language was unrolled, explaining all the music that I had enjoyed and thereafter was to yet. The language of pop, or, a history and future of Aaron's liking music by The Beach Boys, it was called. Before Today isn't nearly as monumental, but it was a similar experience. Before Today is ultimately a pop album masked in its diverse draw of influences and styles. As some sort of artifact containing the last four decades of pop music, the album sounds at times like a corroded, thirty year-old battery which, having been exposed to the elements, has become a jumbled timeline. Some moments surface from the past; others point toward the future. The corrosion damage is ascertainable: fuzzy production, singers unconcerned with intelligibly pronouncing all lyrics, songs veering in unexpected directions, and the foolishness of the word "genre" to define the wash of sounds. The pop instruction manual checked out this morning. This oddball world that Ariel Pink has put to tape, replete with unpolished gems, centers on "Round and Round," a song that works as a kind of collage of all musical styles represented on the album. It's indescribable for me in terms of sound, so i can only praise as wonderful these partially decomposed songs whose pop souls show through the virtual decades of dust. I hear Stevie Wonder, Bowie and Talking Heads to name a few. Hear the past, hear the future. Hm!

Must hear: "Round and Round" Other highlights: "L'estat," "Fright Night," "Butt-House Blondies," "Can't Hear My Eyes"

1. Hot Chip - One Life Stand

I just said to myself: "I feel so warm when I hear this album." Wait, isn't this dance music? I have no idea. In my musical ignorance or inexperience, I've found this kind of music (dance? I'm not sure yet) to be alienating, often too distant in its precision to affect. So 2010 has shown me through a couple albums on this list that this music can have power over more than my spinal cord and hips. Where One Life Stand succeeds for me is in the welcome mat of hooks that unfold slowly, or spring from nowhere as if from a pop-up book. "Hand Me Down Your Love" throws jerky jabs for 1.5 minutes, and right as I'm reaching to skip tracks the tender, melodic heart of the song is revealed. The strings reach in and stretch our chests open wide. The title track is similarly standoffish until the two-minute mark when the song's bouncy lurch is replaced with sweet sentiments and molasses-thick melody. Stretch it over your toes when it gets cold. "Brothers" is also a standout and personal favorite for its heartfelt tribute to brotherly love. The song's mild verses are, once again, shot through as the song accelerates, but the sentiment grows softer, more human. It's a shift that knocks me off my feet even though I know it's coming. If there is an album this year that I would say reminded me how carefully to treat songs, it's this one. One Life Stand knows when to let them smolder, when to let them grow, and when to flip them on their heads. The dynamic of cold giving way to warm and vice versa is what has kept this album so fresh all year. It's season-less, or, maybe more appropriately, season-full, and the seasons of life from my 2010 have only proved its breadth.

Must hear: "Hand Me Down Your Love" Other highlights: "Thieves in the Night," "One Life Stand," "Brothers," "Take It In"

Hooray! That's it for 2010!

My Favorite Albums of 2010 (2)

2011-01-14T13:34:00.007-06:00

From part one:

10. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (needs proper comma use)

9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

8. Women - Public Strain

Part two:

7. Pomegranates - One of Us

I love this fruit. As an enticing band name that caught my eye (mouth?), Pomegranates did quite a number on my ears, too. The opening title track sonic-booms after a pensive first minute, propelling me spaceward where reverb dreams and guitar drones float along side me weightlessly: "I wish that I could just let go / I've closed my fingers way too tight on what I think I know." Yeah. I'm with you there, Pommies. Some tracks rock a bit; some tracks drift as looser compositions or transition from "song" to "song." I'm happy to simply categorize this album as "indie rock," even though the term is almost meaningless at this point. The term is a hurricane: all that radiates from the center interacts, blows, and...is, but the eye's a nothingness - a controlling but empty sign of the larger swirl. So, "indie rock" will have to do. I found much to enjoy here, whether it was a more beat-heavy rocker ("50's," "Prouncer") or a mellow, meditative dreamscape ("White Fawn," "Between Two Dreams"). One highlight, "Anywhere You Go," starts with a chest-thumping swell of yelps ("I can be / pretty desperate / about a lot of things / but all I want / to want / is love") before stepping away into a back story narrative of new lovers. The final punctuation of "I'll go anywhere that you go / I like you / I REALLY LIKE YOU!" strikes a wistful and anxious mood that lies at the heart of this collection of songs. It's heartfelt all the way through as a good indie rock disk should be, and that reminds of the bounty of life experiences that 2010 brought me.

Highlights: "One of Us," "50's," "Prouncer," "Anywhere You Go," "Between Two Dreams," "Demond"

6. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter make great music. This is no surprise as they and side projects have been in my top ten for three straight years. Good good good. End of story.

Highlights: "Don't Cry," "Revival," "Memory Boy," "Desired Lines," "Helicopter"

5. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Some albums here required no thought at all for me to love. For forty minutes, Surfer Blood let the pop-rock flow from them seemingly effortlessly. The hooks are bouncy, the lyrics contemplative yet light; all in all, the album efficiently delivers blow after blow of crunchy pop-rock. "Swim" is the most perfect example here: huge riffage, vocals in booming reverb, and a cheerleading chorus. It's simple, effective and air guitar ready. Rock on.

Highlights: "Floating Vibes," "Swim," "Take it Easy," "Harmonix," "Anchorage"

Top four this weekend!

My Favorite Albums of 2010 (1)

2011-01-13T22:48:00.010-06:00

I've made it a small new year's resolution to blog more here - and about other things besides music. However! This is the fun time of year that I get to delve into music nerditry and talk about why certain albums made my ears have a great year. This has taken the form of a top 10 list, but in reality it's nothing more than an ordered catalogue of music that has worked its way into my life, invariably but somehow staking a claim on how I experienced 2010. Here is the first installment:

10. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

"Huh? -Actual thought as I read all the year-end lists from magazines, e-zines, friends, etc. So many of them had Kanye on top. Admittedly, I kinda despise the guy, but I guess we probably all do just a little bit. He's like me in a lot of ways, and that scares me. So despising him makes me feel as if I have control over those things. I picked up this album half out of morbid curiosity and half out of genuine hope that it was awesome. Well... It took a few weeks. Immediately, "All of the Lights" was a favorite, as well as "Who Will Survive in America," a brief segue track that features some passionate/bizarre Allen Ginsberg-esque poetry reading, but I left it there: content to be unimpressed. Something happened though: I started to like MORE of it. If you know me, you know I'm not into the rap/hip-hop that much. Even the most classic of the classics in the genre have probably never graced my ears. So there I was stuck in a car with people that wanted to rock this album all the way to Colorado (eight-hour drive from Nebraska), and somewhere along the way I let me guard down. "Lost in the World" was allowed to sound its anthemic YAWP in my ear, unobstructed by my resistance. Putting this album at 10 on the list is not simply a token acknowledgement of an album that so many others have praised. I experienced it and loved it in my own way.

Highlights: "Dark Fantasy," "Who Will Survive in America," "All of the Lights," "Monster," "Lost in the World"

9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Arcade Fire became, through Funeral and Neon Bible, many people's favorite prophets of the 21st century apocalypse. On this record, as Win Butler has alluded to, the band seems to step back a bit from the exasperation of earlier albums. I hear what Butler means when he says that this album is simply meant to be "from the suburbs," and not a critique of them. There is less satire here, less irony, and this translates to more earnestness, happily. "Modern Man," among others, communicates adult paranoia in more personal and less political ways, and Butler's quivering vocals have never sounded quite so hopeful and helpless as on the title track: "I want a daughter while I'm still young / I want to hold her hand, show her some beauty before all this damage is done / But if it's too much to ask... / Send me a son." It feels like Arcade Fire is ageing well. It's easy to forget - probably because of the emotional and critical weight of the previous two - that The Suburbs is only the third major release from the group. As an evolution of the riotous passion that Arcade Fire is capable of expressing, this album sees them move inward toward the more personal - away from overindulging the socio-political. For me, the inward turn produces some of the more poignant expressions of the corporate experience of suburban life. Artistic success does not lie solely in how convincingly the subject is rendered, however, so it's to their credit that they've conveyed that subject through this great collection of songs.

Highlights: "Ready to Start," "Modern Man," "Empty Room," "We Used to Wait," "Sprawl II"

8. Women - Public Strain

Haha... OOPS! I put a song from this album in my not-top-10 list! I know. That was before Women completely took over my iPod, car stereo, computer and the musical part of my brain. You must blame them for this! The first time I listened, I thought, "I loved one song (see previous post) and was bored by the rest." I heard a voice saying, "Give it some time, Aaron!!" "...OK VOICE!" I said. And, then, two weeks later: "Good GOSH, thank you, voice!!!" The thing is, I dont' think my first impressions were all that off; there isn't a lot to grab your attention here, honestly. But slowly, surely and unintentionally, I started to hear things I liked - no, wait... - loved. First of all, I hear so many other artists I love throughout this album: Sonic Youth ("Drag Open"), Embryonic-era Flaming Lips ("China Steps"), Strokes ("Locust Valley"), Velvet Underground ("Narrow with the Hall"), and Television (all over). But Women hold it together and are able to forge their own sound from these parts. The guitar interplay is one of my favorite parts, as the crunchy hooks seem to surface form nowhere. In much the same way, melody bubbles up somehow from the seeming a-melodic, and the atonal reveals its tonality. Much like the album cover, it's a blurry, dizzying blitz of noise, but there's still living breathing people behind it all if you care to pick them out.

Highlights: "Heat Distraction," "Drag Open," "Locust Valley," "Venice Lockjaw," "Eyesore"

A close few that will miss the cut this year:

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Vampire Weekend - Contra

Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker

Girl Talk - All Day

Favorite songs not on a top 10 album of 2010 (4)

2011-01-04T21:00:00.005-06:00

A couple more songs from great albums that aren't in my top 10 list:

Joanna Newsom – “Baby Birch”

Beautiful is not a sufficient word for Joanna Newsom’s Have One on Me; it’s too broad. Beauty wears many faces. For example: “Baby Birch,” although beautiful, is devastating. My chest caves in four inches, my head falls: “This is a song for baby birch,” she welcomes. Be ready, my heart, you will fall farther, sigh heavier: “I wish we could take every path / I could spend a hundred years adoring you / Yes, I wish we could take every path, / because I hated to close / the door on you.” Some have speculated that the song is about abortion or a stillborn child. Could be. Regardless of the subject matter, it’s still a “nine-minute-ache” – to borrow a description I’ve read. Indeed, it has haunted me at times with the weight of its sadness. Although difficult to digest in its fullness I’ve known early on that this was a superb album, and “Baby Birch” fills me with so much of whatever it is filled with that I cannot deny how often I have carried its weight with me.

Liars – “Scissor”

The song’s basic plot: man finds body, man drags body to the car, body awakens. Liars have always seemed to gravitate toward the grotesque, but even when this is not their theme they manage to spread their dementia through the music. Take “Scissor,” the first track from Sisterworld. Here’s a song that, regardless of lyrics, would still sound fearsome, cowering and ominous. The minor-keyed chorus of falsetto-ed harmonies that opens the track is exposed as sinister by the lower, quivering octave. Even Billy Corgan opted for that softer, lace-thin voice at times, but it was rarely mistaken as a voice of comfort. So it is with Agnus Andrew. By song’s end, he’s the boogeyman once again, howling in the corner: “When I saw her blinking eye / she was a-LIIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEE!!!!” “Scissor” gave me chills all year. So did the excellent video.

Favorite songs not on a top 10 album of 2010 (3)

2011-01-02T23:31:00.006-06:00

Take a listen to these tasty treats:

Beach House - "Take Care"

This album ultimately suffers the fate of being left out of the top 10 because I lost track of which songs were which after so many listens. As albums become more familiar, their parts should become more distinguishable in my mind somehow. In Beach House's Teen Dream, but for this nitpicking, I found a highly enjoyable listen, and "Take Care" was immediately and remains my favorite track from the album. Unfolding from simple verses, I've described the chorus as the birthing of a musical thought the song had been pregnant with since the first note. It's a wonderful climb, and one that you can almost sense coming. Often those moments that can be anticipated musically fall short of their anticipation, but this one surprisingly fulfills as the mood and music swell to reach the altitude of Victoria Legrand's bounding melody: "I'll take care of you / if you ask me to". Anticipation: fulfilled! One of the better album closers I heard; one of the better songs I remember hearing.

Andrew Bird - "Master Sigh"

I have to check myself here, because Mr. Bird's Useless Creatures was available beginning in 2009. It didn't receive its own release, though, until this October, which was when I first made its acquaintance. It's terrific meditative music to lazy away any afternoon with, curled up with a book or fast a-study. Bird's work has grown increasingly farther from my tastes in recent years since 2005's brilliant The Mysterious Production of Eggs, but with this sparse release, I'm beginning to believe again. "Master Sigh" introduces the meandering orchestral strolls of Useless Creatures quite well while indulging in a swooning melody accompanied by his patented whimsical whistling. Soon the string section pulls up the blankets, drifting into and over the tranquility, weightless and floating off into nothing. It's breazy, airy and charming. More of this, please, Mr. Bird. Plz.

More to come! Top 10 albums list coming early next week!

Favorite songs not on a top 10 album of 2010 (2)

2011-01-01T21:01:00.002-06:00

Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”

What a thrill this song was the first time I listened! The other times, too. The first listen with headphones was even more dizzying. The album didn’t live up to the promise of this, its first single, but geez I’d be satisfied to have recorded a song this sonically affecting. It almost elicits a physical response from me as a listener. I shake my head violently as the main thrust swoops in, mimicking in any way I can the thrashing and throbbing; I bob and skip to the chorus’s charge: “Stick up for yourself, son / Nevermind what anybody else done.” The sentiment fits well, but it will always be the maddening, chaotic rush of the first minute that brings me back to this song over and over.

Favorite songs not on a top 10 album of 2010

2010-12-31T12:55:00.007-06:00

I enjoyed too much music this year to limit myself to a top 10 albums list! So here are some songs that made my year better but would be left unacknowledged in the top 10 albums format because the album they appeared on will not make my list. The song titles will have links for your (and my!) listening pleasure. Let us not grow weary of discussing/hearing/dissecting music!

Sufjan Stevens – “All Delighted People”

Of the three epic, 10-minute plus tracks that Suffy put out this year, only one truly affected me. “Djohariah” loses itself in cronky soloing for several minutes, and “Impossible Soul” loses my interest at the first instant the autotune creeps in. This one, though, Sufjan got right, and wonderfully so. From the chorus of ladies behind him, to the fitting tribute to and/or repurposing of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence,” to the variety of melodies that find their way out of the progressions, it is marvelous and thrilling for all 11+ minutes.

Women – “Eyesore”

On the strength of several tracks this album was close to making the top ten, so there is much more here than one song. “Eyesore” is a monstrously disjointed jangle, snaking through sections that seem melodically unconnected, which stand in for verses that eventually give way to the rockin' finale its been stowing away all along. The dissonance and atonality in some of the album’s tracks is close to intolerable – if not at least confusing – but when they put their minds to it, Women are capable of utilizing these more distancing elements to enhance, stimulate and draw nearer. This is apparent on the album’s closer, “Eyesore,” the most affecting song on their album Public Strain, and my favorite album closer of the year. I can't get enough.

More to come!

On clothing

2010-11-10T21:55:00.005-06:00

Colossians 3:12 ...Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

It occurred to me this evening that clothing may be an under-examined aspect of a.) the human experience, and b.) the bible. Mostly the latter has interested me. So I thought about it:

Adam and Eve, if we are to take the book's word for it, fashioned clothing in a last-ditch attempt to hide the shame of the reality that they were human. The first humans, in the very moment they became human, found their most pressing need to be that of clothing - of a covering for what should not be exposed. Was it not also a shield between their real selves and the world that they now understood? Was it not a shelter from all that wounds and, therefore, did they not ultimately see themselves as the first wounded ones?

I have selected a verse above that also encourages clothing, but this kind is more ethereal. If this is the "clothing" we are encouraged to stretch over our heads and tuck in around our waists, what of the clothing that we shed? Earlier we are urged to shed "all such things as these: anger, rage malice, slander and filthy language..." We clothe ourselves also in these things, I wager, because in our minds they do quite a bit better at protecting us than mercy or humility ever could. I shield myself from others with pride; I am ruthless and grace-less because these qualities shield me from my shame, from nakedness. They keep me from seeing the mirror; they keep others from seeing inside me.

What if we put on these new clothes, then? How can I be shielded by gentleness, kindness, compassion? Are these not attitudes that make one vulnerable, more accessible instead of defensible? Which is the natural clothing?

We clothe ourselves, if it is up to us, with that which will shelter, protect and cover. Following the line of Adam and Eve, who taught us well, we cower behind malice, blind hatred and cynicism. Shame cowers there, too, and it is not exposed for its cowering. Our shame, which is that we are failures, that we are those lost flounderers who lay at the mercy of the world, is too much to bear exposure. We brace ourselves against that harshness with our own version of it, but inside are we not still beating hearts and wide, blinking eyes before it all?

Putting on new clothes, then, seems a kind of re-veiling of that vulnerability in such a way that it exposes us to all. And yet, in the end, all are also exposed by it. All who will receive that compassion, mercy, and kindness must too perceive their own selves as they are.

New clothes, transparent clothes, and now, finally, we have become who we were all along.

My LOST Finale reaction/analysis

2010-05-24T13:35:00.008-05:00

There are few experiences that can draw out that classic "life flashing before one's eyes" kind of sensation. I think those are some of the more telling and extraordinary moments of life because they lend a perspective to our daily monotony that we otherwise fail to see. When Michel de Certeau speaks of being lifted to the summit of the now nonexistent World Trade Center, he senses that he is transformed from pedestrian into deity. He says,

One's body is no longer clasped by the streets that turn and return it according to an anonymous law; nor is it possessed, whether as player or played, by the rumble of so many differences and by the nervousness of New York traffic. When one goes up there, he leaves behind the mass that carries off and mixes up in itself any identity of authors or spectators. An Icarus flying above these waters, he can ignore the devices of Daedalus in mobile and endless labyrinths far below. His elevation transfigures him into a voyeur. It puts him at a distance. It transforms the bewitching world by which one was "possessed" into a text that lies before one's eyes. It allows one to read it, to be a solar Eye, looking down like a god.

The perspective that De Certeau experiences up on high affords him the capacity to disconnect, to survey the vast, unconscious mass of urbanity that spreads out before him. It is from this perspective that I found myself seeing my life's course after having just watched the series finale of LOST.

[minor spoilers ahead]

Leading up to the final episode, I had, as many of my fellow LOST-watchers did, a checklist of the points that needed to be cleared up - the mysteries or questions left unresolved. Gladly, however, my cynicism and/or critical appraisal of the show (they are indistinguishable at this point) was overcome by the true fabric of the show: its characters. Some mysteries were left unsolved, like why Widmore want The Island so badly, why Desmond's resistance to electromagnetism actually mattered, why the characters were able to see through their time/space into The Island's, etc. Throughout the finale, I found myself fully be-goosebumped and sweating, but it wasn't because of the mysteries that they were finally revealing: it was any number of characters being unveiled to each other -- Sawyer and Juliet find each other, Hurley finds that he matters as much as anyone else, John Locke and Jack Shephard flip through their past like a picture book that recalls their ideological irreconcilability as they sat in the hospital post-op.

The characters gained a perspective not unlike the one that De Certeau describes from on high: they saw back through their past and felt all of its latent significance wash over into their current lives. I felt drawn into that kind of washing-over, as I, too, have seen 5 years of my own life pass watching this show (I watched the first season on DVDs). People have come and gone from my life since then. I have let new people into my life just as much as I have, unfortunately, lost others that were once friends or loves to the past. For only about the last hour of the finale and in the brief time since then, I sat on high with De Certeau and surveyed my life's last 5 years, its changing elevation, its ebbs and flows, the doors that have opened and closed again, and the allegros and largos of the past that has made the present what it is. I recalled memories long since forgotten that flashed back into consciousness. I felt like, for the first time in a long while, I could see the broad scope of my life in all of its shifting colors - with both the past and future in frame. As De Certeau puts it, "Perspective vision and prospective vision constitute the twofold projection of an opaque past and an uncertain future onto a surface that can be dealt with."

These two realities exist in LOST too: the previous episodes are the opaque past from which many tried to project an uncertain future of answers and solved riddles. This duality often drove the plot of LOST and the desire to understand its mysteries. Would the questions be answered later? Would earlier mysteries find their appropriate reflection in the answers of later episodes? What I concluded as I watched the last chapter unfold in what some will doubtlessly call (and not for unfounded reasons) an unsatisfactory ending is that the characters were the ones that ultimately needed reconciliation - not the mysteries. Hurley needed to fulfill a purpose precisely so that his life could feel purposeful. Benjamin Linus needed to find forgiveness for his conscience's sake, but also for our sake - so we would know how to see him in light of all he'd done. John Locke and Jack Shephard needed to hug - with all their past quarrels in perspective. Tears needed to be shed between separated loves Charlie and Claire, Hurley and Libby, Sawyer and Juliet, Jack and Kate, because these were the driving forces of the show's drama. Science fiction would be dry without such human elements as love, hate, envy, acceptance and loss. Star Wars was driven by Luke's relationship to his father, Han and Leia, and the forces of love/hate as much as any creative idea about Death Stars or space battles. And so with LOST, the characters' relationships were given the final word, because the peace they found with each other and with their experiences was the most important question that had been left unanswered.

For what it's worth, that character reconciliation is what finally fulfilled my enjoyment of the show. It allowed me to put to rest my expectation of explanation. It left me looking back into my own life for the need of reconciliation that may one day find its way to me. It helped me look down from on high and see my life for the "fathomless mystery that it is" - as Frederick Buechner as put it. I don't want all of life's questions answered either, because, really, who has the time to sort it out? What I do want is reconciliation and peace with others, and a point from which to view my life in all of its colorfulness. If that's what I can gain, the mysteries can continue to rest in peace for all I care. At the end of the day, the most important artistic creations, to me, are the ones that turn my eyes inward and let me look at myself anew. LOST has been a marvelous work of art to me in that sense.

favorite albums, 2009 version

2009-12-28T18:31:00.021-06:00

10 - Grizzly Bear "Veckatimest"

Aside from the disappointment of hearing the best two tracks from this album months before its release (“Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others”), this album was highly anticipated in light of my number one album of last year (Grizzly Bear side project Department of Eagles). Too much anticipation can do as much harm to my reception of an album as four year-old iBook G4 speakers (they sound terrible). This album didn’t seem to capture the moody range of “Yellow House” or “In Ear Park”, but its baroque pop songs did contain enough goodness for me to include it on this list. I won’t listen to any advance singles from the next album, I promise.

(listen here)

9 - Cass McCombs "Catacombs"

Having recently developed an appreciation for 2007’s “Dropping the Writ”, I was excited for this stripped-down version of McCombs’s songwriting. He’s got a great ear for melody, and I was particularly happy with the evolution of his lyrics into clever, memorable capsules such as: “You’re not my dream girl, you’re not my reality girl, you’re my dreams come true girl” on the opener “Dream Come True Girl." There's much more clever musicianship and word-working to be had here on "The Executioner's Song" and "My Sister, My Spouse" among others.

(listen here)

8 - Califone "All my friends are funeral singers"

(See earlier post on this blog)

(listen here)

7 - Cymbals Eat Guitars "Why there are mountains"

As my friend Jeremy said: “I like any album that goes for epic in the first 15 seconds.” It was easy to just listen to “And the Hazy Sea” over and over as if that were the only track, but this band’s not-so-subtle mixture of Modest Mouse, Built to Spill and Pavement pays dividends throughout these nine tracks. This was one album that I knew instantly would make this list for the sheer go-for-broke nature of the opening track, but I found much more to like in the familiarity of the music heard through its influences. Sometimes "derivative" doesn’t mean reductive.

(listen here)

6 - Atlas Sound "Logos"

Last year’s Deerhunter album really stuck with me, so it’s not too surprising that I have found this album (from their side project) so enjoyable. Bradford Cox seems to be more interested in the ethereal tendencies of Deerhunter, and here he exploits them as the album drifts between proper songs and more airy, un-tethered pieces: “The Light That Failed”, “An Orchid”, “Kid Klimax”, and “Washington School” could be loosely classified as the latter. The central six or seven songs of this album help to anchor its more ambient pieces in the solid earth of songwriting. Unsurprisingly, Noah Lennox’s (of Animal Collective) collaboration on “Walkabout” make it a standout, along with “Attic Lights,” “Shelia” and “My Halo”. As on last year’s “Microcastle,” “Logos” is another hazy Bradford Cox-related release through which the more structured songs shine through brightest.

(listen here)

5 - Phoenix "Wolfgang amadeus phoenix"

These songs are nearly too polished, almost too robotic, but it’s this seemingly unfeeling pop precision that makes every melodic twist cover a remarkable emotive range. Phoenix gave me an album of shrink-wrapped pop that I will return to often. The one-two punch of “Listomania” and “1901” could be the best openers of the year, and the wave of hooks keeps rolling through all nine tracks. It’s nice to have an album like this once a year: tight, melodic pop-rock.

(listen here)

4 - St. Vincent "Actor"

There is a wonderland of sounds and songs to behold here. With Annie Clark functioning much like Lewis Carroll’s Alice as both protagonist and wide-eyed wonderer, the listener is welcomed into this world and cautioned that his/her surroundings may be unsettling. The monster that reveals itself to be lurking beneath the niceness of “The Strangers” emerges in the darker second track, “Save Me From What I Want”, and finally pushes through in the third, “The Neighbors”. Clark has said that she wanted the guitar to act as a dark monster that arose from beneath the songs to overtake them. It works quite nicely to this effect, threatening to destroy the carefully constructed pop song when it enters in “The Neighbors”. It soon takes over in “Actor Out of Work”. The titles of the tracks also point to this darkness and paranoia that consistently overcome Clark’s more poppy tendencies: “Black Rainbow”, “Laughing with a Mouth of Blood”. I’m happy to have heard this album. It contributed some dark wonder to the year: pop music is to be feared.

(listen here)

3 - The Antlers "Hospice"

One Saturday morning in the fall, on the whim of a good review, I downloaded this album expecting to be overwhelmed by tragedy. I was, and I continued to be. Loosely inspired by the singer’s personal experience, the music of this album is well suited for its storyteller aim – especially for the weight of the tale. It remains unclear exactly what relationship the characters have, but through each somber melody and slow-building climax, cancer, death, pregnancy and dread are each given their voice in the narrative. The highs and lows of human tragedy are what make this one of the most openly autobiographical albums I’ve ever heard. For that, and for its restrained, meek lows and emotive, explosive highs, “Hospice” will be an album marked in my mind for the singular impression it left on me.

(listen here)

2 - Dirty Projectors "Bitte orca"

1 - Animal Collective "Merriweather post pavilion"

I have tried to discuss how the special qualities of these albums are related in an attempt to understand how they produce such similar reactions with such contrasting musical landscapes. Both albums are fairly avant-garde and do not shy away from their intentions to shock-and-awe the listener. “Bitte Orca” erupts with “Cannibal Resource”, an anthem that does well to announce the kind of labyrinthine pop suites to follow. The harmonies fly in from left field, the disjointed guitar riffs shift between “rawk” and artful noodling, and the warbling vocals do little to calm the album’s barrage of aural vertigo. Not unlike “Bitte Orca”, “Merriweather Post Pavilion” also wants to transport the listener to another world via its sound-scape. When I listen to the pulsating sense of life that this album gives off, I hear trees; I hear wind, rain and the entire range of the primitive, organic and vibrant world in which I live. The same basic musical palette that Animal Collective has employed for a few albums is made new to me with lyrics that reach much deeper into the human experience (see: “Also frightened” and “Bluish”, especially). This album is a complete body of work in much the same way that “Bitte Orca” is, but whereas BO is a disjointed rollercoaster ride of hooky and harmonic amusement, MPP is more coherent, more cohesive, and because of that, more complete in my mind. My bottom line is: “Bitte Orca” sounds like it belongs in a museum with other pieces of fine art. It deserves to be appreciated and gawked at by the masses for its outlandish pop constructs. “Merriweather Post Pavilion” never lets that visceral, soul-seeking part of me into the museum: as much as I try, I always end up running outside to experience the instinctive allure of the world.

(listen here to BO) (listen here to MPP)

Well, that's all for this year!

El ingenioso hidalgo don quijote de la mancha

2009-11-11T22:26:00.014-06:00

well i'm almost done reading El Quijote for the second time this year and i think it is a super duper book. the fact that its two parts were written in 1605/1615 respectively was never the most exciting aspect of the book when i approached it years ago for my first attempt at reading it. this time around i've had much more fun, many more laughs and have seen much deeper into what don Quijote represents as a literary figure for me.

just to set the stage a little: don Quijote sets out at the age of 50ish to change the world by restoring the lost practice of chivalric knighthood, along with his reluctant squire Sancho Panza: (rough translations will follow) "to go throughout the world with his arms and horse to find adventures y to behave in such a way as to imitate all that he had read that the former errant knights did, righting every class of injustice, and putting himself in occasions of danger so that he would earn eternal fame." whoa, DQ, take it easy!

so for most of the book he's a comedic character. he thinks windmills are giants and so he attacks them, unsuccessfully. he thinks an innkeeper is the lord of a castle and thus he has found a worthy man to bestow him with the office of knighthood, which the innkeeper happily and laughingly does. he challenges a charging herd of sheep to a duel only to find that they were not the great army that he had seen approaching. as he lay trampled and toothless, he reminds his squire: "you must know, dear sancho, that it is a very easy thing for these enchanters that pursue me to make anything appear to be anything else. this evil enchanter who pursues me, envious of the glory that he saw to be within my grasp in this battle, has turned the enemy legions into flocks of sheep!" lol, DQ!

the thing that really gets me about DQ is not his comedy of errors, although there is constant fodder for laughter here -- just after the herd tramples him, sancho asks, unsure:

"how many molars do you normally have in this part of your mouth?"

"four!," responded don Quijote, "except the wisdom tooth, all are whole and healthy."

"look carefully what you say, my lord," responded sancho.

"i say four, if not then five," responded don Quijote, "because not in my whole life have they taken a tooth or molar out of my mouth, nor have any fallen out from infection or lack of care."

"but in this part below," sancho said, "your mercy has not more than two molars and a half; and in the part above, not even a half, not even one, it is all as flat as the palm of my hand."

"what awful luck!" cried don Quijote, hearing the sad news that his squire gave him, "i would have rather they tear off my arm, as long as it would not be my sword-weilding arm."

lol, Qui-hotes!

anyway, the thing that really gets me is not DQ's comedy of errors, it's who he represents. and who he represents for me is a man with ideals, beliefs and hope who ultimately fails to see any of them realized. don Quijote is a tragic figure who embodies the tragic figure in all of us who, though we cling as tightly as we must to our personal idealism and the things we believe to be true/just/right/holy, may find that those things are ultimately never realized completely. he is a personification of the tragic human condition of limited vision. yet, beyond that tragedy, there may be a rejoicing in our ability to believe passionately and with assurance something that we are as yet unassured of. through the character of don Quijote, i see that faith is at once one among the strongest and weakest of man's instruments to relate to the world around him. with it we may gird up our convictions and motivation for living (as el hidalgo DQ does), but by it we are ultimately left flailing our sword against a deep, dark madness.

its a tragic, beautiful madness, though, if you ask me.

califone

2009-10-19T18:55:00.009-05:00

i like a lot of bands, it's true. there aren't a lot of constants over the years in my 10 favorite albums lists. i guess that's because a lot of bands come and go. many make a great album and then fall off of my radar (see ...Trail of Dead, Clap Your Hands..., and others). but there are bands that transcend their musical production and actually manage to influence my life in some way. among these bands i can only count The Flaming Lips and their world-embracing appeal. that's pretty much the only one that really moves me beyond the music and words. Wayne Coyne is the perfect weirdo whose genuine humanity is so apparent (and who seems most transparent) that it becomes difficult if not impossible to fall in love with the guy and his band.

but i'll add Califone to that list now. since 2004's Heron King Blues, i was pretty attracted to Califone's kitchen-sink brand of folk rock. so dusty, so dirty, so mangled and yet, when the heavy fog of noises dissipated, there were moments of music so affecting in their mood and sound alone, that i didn't mind the 15 minute jams of garbage can percussion and reserved noodling on any number of what seem to be rusty string-ed guitars.

nothing could have prepared me for 2006's Roots and Crowns, though, which placed number 7 in my 2006 year-end list (which, in hindsight, is way way too low). since then, the album has become a staple in my rotation, and i am certain it will land on my decade's favorites list coming at the end of this year. there's something that draws me into their world of imperfectly-tuned instruments, matched with varied and always erratic percussion, all united under tim rutili's rusty, world-worn crooning that keeps me listening. i have a hard time not listening actively to Califone anytime i play them.

if i were to put my finger on it, i would say that when i listen to Califone i feel like i'm hearing a band that expresses what for me is "soul music". i don't mean that in the sense of the genre "soul", rather in that i sense that a lot of soul has gone into the music - and that this music connects with my soul as a consequence. lyrics like "in the morning after the night i fall in love with the light" from "The Orchids" (even though it was not written by Califone) contrast with the a-typically more cryptic "the carnival fighters are sharing a bed tonight bruised in the hay" on "Spider's House". but both of these lyrics are sung with Rutili's downcast sincerity and both acquire the same amount of significance.

now, with 2009's "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers", Califone have added another very strong album to their catalogue. they don't sound different and that's just fine with me. they practice the same restraint as always, tucking away some of their more precious melodic gems into 20 or 30 seconds of 5-minute songs (see the piano's entrance toward the later half of "Giving Away the Bride"). it's this restraint that i think keeps me most interested as a listener, as i am regularly bowled over by melodic passages that creep into songs in ways that are totally unforeseeable. to use a completely random but applicable analogy, Califone makes order (melody) out of chaos (their own chaotic musical structures) in the same way that Brian Phillips (of http://www.runofplay.com) talked about Barcelona making order (beautiful fúbol) out of chaos (22 men running around a field chasing a ball). Califone's disruptive and often odd musical styles make their moments of clarity, melody and beauty that much more clear, melodic and beautiful.

it's good to know that some music isn't just music that sounds good to me: some of it reaches deeper.

http://www.lala.com/#artist/Califone

summah tahm!

2009-08-06T15:01:00.002-05:00

list of action words whose meanings i have fulfilled this summer:

run.
jump.
hike.
climb.
smile.
cry.
love.
eat.
read.
drink.
sleep.
kiss.
drive.
fly.
laugh.
rock (out).
bike.
learn.
miss (dearly).
dream.
race.
change.
bump (set, spike).
think.
cheer (on).
hope.
cook.
notdieinacarcrash.
thank.
pray.
enjoy.
grow.
notblog (sorry).
travel.
swim.

it's been the best ever, as you can see.

imaginaaaaation

2009-03-07T15:45:00.009-06:00

I was just reading this book by Elaine Scarry, called "Dreaming by the Book," and this particular quote stood out to me:

Aristotle said that what distinguishes human beings from other creatures is our capacity to love something without wanting to ingest it [LOL]. All animals, including human beings, he writes, have the power to smell in order to eat; humans alone have a second reason to smell; namely, to smell flowers, with no interest at all in eating them. Our smelling of food, says Aristotle, is discontinuous and contingent -- whether something smells good depends on whether we are hungry -- whereas our smelling of flowers is noncontingent and ongoing. Of course, smelling the flowers, seeing the flowers, touching the flowers, imagining the flowers is also a way of ingesting or at least interiorizing them, since we carry them in as objects of perception and imagining. Ludwig Wittgenstein suggests that when one sees something beautiful -- an eyelid, a cathedral -- the hand wants to draw it. Like smelling, like imagining, this too is an act of interiorization, the yearning to incorporate, to make a residual image.

what I like most about this book -- and, in general, about most books dealing with literary theory -- is its ability to perfectly describe certain automatic processes that I do every day. this is also true of other books in their own ways, but Elaine Scarry's book has specifically been a joy to read for me because of it. this chapter on imagining flowers has been extremely interesting, in the sense that, as she says, flowers are just about the most prominent objects used in poetry and other ultra-descriptive prose. for whatever reason it is much easier to perform "perceptual mimesis" (fancy words for imagining) with flowers than with many other objects. this is due, in part, to the fact that flowers are smaller, more colorful and thinner than many other objects. mostly what I get out of this is that our brains are pretty sweet.

thought this was funny

2009-02-25T17:12:00.002-06:00

Hi. Hi there. Can I have some?

Is that OK if I just have some? Just a sip. I’m just a little thirsty. I know I just had some water, but all I want is one sip. Can I? OK?

Thanks. That’s all I wanted. Just a little sip like that one. I saw it sitting there and I thought maybe you would be nice. You let me have a sip. You are nice. I thought so. It’s nice to be with you. You are real nice for that. I like you.

Hey. So, let me ask…can I have another sip? Please? I mean, you’re not drinking it right now. Maybe I could just sip it for you. You don’t have to pick it up. I can reach it just fine. Yeah, I can just sip it while you aren’t. OK? What do you think? The first sip kinda made me thirsty. Funny how that works. Funny, huh? How it works like that. Did you think about it? Hm? Just a sip while you are busy. You are so nice.

Oh, thank you. Thanks a lot. It tasted good. Yeah, I liked it. That’s a real good drink you got there. A good drink for a nice person like you. I’m so glad.

You know, I think I might take another sip. Just a little one this time. Yeah? I can’t help it. I’m sorry. Sorry. Ok, I’m sorry. Too far. I just wanted another sip, but I’m sorry. Sorry.

Are you still mad?

I hope you aren’t mad. I like you. Hey, that’s your drink, huh? It’s big. Big drink you got there. Yep, it’s a big one. Big.

So can I have some? Some of your drink? Yeah, that’s right. Just a little. You seem to not be drinking it, and I just thought I could maybe help you. You know, help you out. It looks like you could use some help. Just trying to be helpful. OK. That’s all right. Maybe later you will let me help you.

So, hey. You gonna drink it all? I could help maybe. I’m good at helping. Yeah, sure am.

the problem with "brothers"

2009-02-05T23:12:00.014-06:00

let's be honest, not very many people like this bar. while i've never graced its interior, i can say with confidence that hardly anyone i know has any part of them that enjoys this place. its name says it all: "brothers." "hey brah! what FRAT ARE YOU IN!?" "TIGHT DAWG. let's see if we can get that chick to do some BAHDEE SHOTZ with us!," they seem to be saying to each other when i walk by. with popped collars, designer jeans and fake (or real) gold watches, these ex-high school super-stars keep on living it up at brothers. that's the reputation it has, anyway. i never really had any problem with this bar other than the fact that it's a the only chain bar in the 14th and O area that i know of - and that it's geared toward frat dudes. (RAWK!) that doesn't seem like a really great foundation for truly loathing an establishment like many people i know do, but then something happened to me that changed my vague dislike into full-scale contempt...

it was only last spring sometime when i was denied entrance to this bar just because i had on a white t-shirt. that's their dress code policy: "no white t-shirts". "seriously, read it on the window. brah," the man said to me as i proceeded to walk through his arm thinking he was joking. and so i waited outside on a bench for my friend who went in to look for someone. "that's kind of a weird policy," i thought (and continued), "i wonder why they think they are above people that wear white t-shirts." this thought seemed to resurface in my (sub)conscious over the next few weeks as i pondered what their problem with us white t-shirt wearers could be. then it hit me: actually nothing hit me. i couldn't understand it for the life of me except that it was an attempt to keep up the "stature" of the bar. yep, gotta have that collar, gotta have that non-white t-shirt. gotta keep up the image of our clientele.

be that as it may, and there may be a legitimate reason for this dress code rule, i found myself strolling in front of brothers a couple months later with a couple of my "bros," when the doorman thought we should be informed about their wing special for the evening. "wha'sup BRAH!" he said strolling up to us, " hey you dudes know we got a wing special tonight? ten cent wings, dawgs. that's ten wings for a buck, man!" little did the two doormen know that i had on a white t-shirt under my jacket. so naturally (and sarcastically), i turned and said, "oh geez, brah! i'd LOVE to eat some of your wings but i have a white t-shirt on. what an obstacle between me and your sweet wing special!" he challenged me to display said t-shirt. i did so while saying, "yeah you won't let me in will you. nice dress code policy!"

now, at this point i am not trying to hide my disdain for his establishment, so it's pretty clear that i'm being a snide jerk about it. but then... before he returns to his doorman stool he whips out a classic: "well... then stop dressing like a DOUCHE!" yes he did. sooooo did. to which i obviously replied, "oh yeah....ooooooh, look how douche-y i am in my white shirt! ugggghhh so douche-y! can't even go inside brothers..."

it wasn't until i got home that i realized: "i just got CALLED A NAME by someone. how ridiculous! he called me a 'douche' just for wearing a white t-shirt. that's so outrageous!" the idea was spawned shortly after this night to one-up their ridiculousness with some of our own. as it was nearing the colder months, we only had two opportunities to do so, but we have begun "white t-shirt protest night." as many as are able meet downtown and walk up to brothers' enormous glass windows in white t-shirts, staring ever so zombie-like at those inside to stand in protest. we stand in solidarity for the voiceless white t-shirt wearers of lincoln and the world against childish name-calling and questionable dress codes (mostly the name-calling). we will likely resume protesting in may on fridays (or whenever). there is a facebook group if anyone feels compelled to join. that is all. unite!

"which is the real one?"

2009-01-30T15:49:00.004-06:00

i read this...thing a couple years ago and it still sticks with me as one of the most affecting little pieces of literature i've ever read. this is a translation from french.

"Which is the real one?" Charles Baudelaire

I once knew a certain Bénédicta who filled earth and air with the ideal, and whose eyes scattered the seeds of longing for greatness, beauty and glory, for everything that makes a man believe in immortality.

But this miraculous girl was too beautiful to live long; and so it was that, only a few days after I had come to know her, she died, and I buried her with my own hands one day when Spring was swaying its censer over the graveyards. I buried her with my own hands and shut her into a coffin of scented and incorruptible wood like the coffers of India.

And while my eyes still gazes on the spot where my treasure lay buried, all at once I saw a little creature who looked singularly like the deceased, stamping up and down on the fresh earth in a strange hysterical frenzy, and who said as she shrieked with laughter: "Look at me! I am the real Bénédicta! A perfect hussy! And to punish you for your blindness and your folly, you shall love me as I am."

But I was furious and cried: "No! no! no!" And to emphasize my refusal I stamped so violently on the earth that my leg sank into the new dug grave up to my knee; and now, like a wolf caught in a trap, I am held fast, perhaps forever, to the grave of the ideal.

three years back

2009-01-20T21:59:00.007-06:00

you'll notice the blog archives here are mostly filled with blogging that was meant to keep my friends in the loop as to my adventures in europe. it's been three years since the beginning of my most recent trip across the pond so i thought i'd recall and rehash a few things that happened on my two trips to spain (july-august 2004 and january-july 2006).

the most enduring things from spain and europe that i continually think about if not daily, then at least weekly:
people i knew there (and still keep in contact with)
places i went (specifically bigger cities that are in the news)
spanish fútbol (most notably my team sevilla)

that's it, i guess. and hmm...that's not such a novel thing, either: to have "people" and "places" as two of my most-often evoked items. that seems pretty consistent with what traveling and living abroad is. so i guess the novelty i was aiming for has not been met; yet i am not discouraged in my blogging objective.

"people" comes up this week in particular because i talked on the phone to some of the people who were cornerstones of my two experiences. paco and pilar gómez were my host family (read: grandparents) during my summer in toledo. they were wonderful hosts and very kind. they genuinely care about the progress of the students that stay with them, and thus are very warm and encouraging for rough spanish speakers. this is also evidenced by paco's righteous anger and refusal to give students the password for his then newly-acquired (in 2006 when i returned for a visit) wireless internet. the unfortunate girl who stayed with them that spring received all of paco's ire when she would talk to her boyfriend back home on video chat programs until 3 am. you should have seen the bags under his eyes as he explained with open exasperation (as the spanish are known for) how little sleep he had been getting with all her chattering down the hall. he just wanted her to speak spanish! "es que estos americanos creen que están de vacaciones cuando aquí. ¡y no es así, aarón!" [these americans think they are on vacation when they come here, and that's not true!] he told me yesterday. paco's grandpa tendencies only make him more adorable though, as i could go on for hours.

the second "people" that i talked to this week was bahiya, my friend from sevilla. we arrived in sevilla from different parts of the world: she being born in morocco and having studied in pennsylvania, was preparing to enter a masters program at georgetown. and i, of course, from the midwest with no real aspirations for anything post-college. there are a few people in life that i have found that i can be friends with without the slightest effort or intention. that was a special connection that i shared with bahiya. i guess i don't know about her end of that, but my view of our friendship was (is) one of effortlessness. i think we just understood each other very well. both our senses of humor and our more serious moments of conversation meshed with ease. so we caught up with each other last night. it had been a year or so since we last spoke on the phone. it's just a genuine pleasure to know her as a friend. we have lots of good memories, to be sure, but more than that we found a lot to enjoy in our friendship. the picture below shows how much fun we were always having together with our other friends.

i think that's enough for this one. i'll probably continue this series of memories on occasion as i also read through my journal from the sevilla trip over the next 6 months. below are photos of paco (and pilar) and bahiya. ¡hasta luego!

fray luis de león

2009-01-13T12:39:00.013-06:00

this blog (from myspace) is from last fall in my first semester of grad school. i still occasionally read some fray luis. he was a poet in Spain's renaissance in the 15th century. in this photo, you see a picture of me under a statue of him in Salamanca where he studied. well, i'm studying too. for a golden age poetry exam this afternoon and i happened to be focusing on one of his poems, "En La Ascención" about the ascention of christ. it's pretty awesome, so i thought i'd put it on here:

¿Y dejas, Pastor santo, And you leave, holy Shepherd,

tu grey en este valle hondo, escuro, your flock in this deep, dark valley,

con soledad y llanto; with solitude and crying;

y tú, rompiendo el puro and you, breaking the pure

aire, te vas al inmortal seguro? air, leave to the secure immortal?

Los antes bienhadados The previously well found

y los agora tristes y afligidos, and now sorrowful and afflicted,

a tus pechos criados, at your breasts brought up,

de ti desposeídos, of you dispossessed,

¿a dó convertirán ya sus sentidos? to where will they turn their senses?

¿Qué mirarán los ojos, What will their eyes look to,

que vieron de tu rostro la hermosura, those that saw the beauty of your face,

que no les sea enojos? that will not be but troublesome to them?

Quien oyó tu dulzura To he who heard your sweetness

¿qué no tendrá por sordo y desventura? What will not be deafness, misfortune?

Aqueste mar turbado This turbulent sea

¿quién le pondrá ya freno?, ¿quién concierto of whom will it be calmed? Who to arrange

al viento fiero, airado? the fierce and angry wind?

Estando tú encubierto, Being you concealed,

¿qué Norte guiará la nave al puerto? What North will guide the ship to port?

¡Ay!, nube envidiosa Ay!, envious cloud

aun deste breve gozo, ¿qué te aquejas? even of brief delight, What to grieve?

¿dó vuelas presurosa? Where do you fly with such haste?

¡cuán rica tú te alejas! How rich as you move away!

¡cuán pobres y cuán ciegos, ¡ay!, nos dejas! How poor and blind, ay!, you leave us!

i guess it's never occured to me the kind of emotions that must have been going on in that moment. the people that spent their lives with him and lived for only a few days outside of his light. to have to realize that they were about to return to that darkness (although this time with new-found light and hope). it must have been quite a painful moment. anyone (jeremy) that has thoughts on the translation can help me out.

the list 2008

2009-01-08T20:25:00.001-06:00

i've decided to jump back into the blogging universe. once again, a year-end list is the topic, but i promise this is not the extent of my blogging interests (evidence aside). besides travelling and music lists, there's not much to speak of. i haven't used this space for much "real" blogging, but have instead used myspace, which i don't like anyway. so, i plan to copy/paste a few posts from that blog here and maybe elaborate with some more current thoughts regarding whatever i had to say at the time. sounds fun to me!

so...onto the list. people have said that 2008 was a rough year for music. i don't know what that means, but i will say that this year has found me listening to more albums that i wasn't super in love with. and so, when it comes to plugging these albums into an at times rigorous top 10 list, we see some difficulties emerge, specifically when 10 worthy albums cannot be found. at the risk of not conforming, though, i have relented and picked the 10 best albums i heard - in particular order.

10. M83 - Saturday = Youth

this one just baaaarely sneaks on the list because it truly does have some great moments. most notable are: Kim & Jessie, Graveyard Girl and Too Late. unfortunately, all the good times i had while listening to this one were almost destroyed in one fell bad-concert-experience swoop. "don't go see m83 with high expectations" would be my advice to any and all fans of their music. this was one of my favorite albums of the year at one point. it's sad that the show could bring it down that much, but my fellow show attenders (jeremy and kim) agree: too much pre-programed music and not enough of the great guitar tones found all over the album. good album, m83. i wish i hadn't seen you try to play it. oh, and "up!" is the...worst...song...of the year. i'm still not sure i want it on this list.

listen here

9. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

this is a good album by a better band. there, i am now a music writer. it's not as awe-full as their previous album, which blew me away. so, i guess they get to be on this list because i think they have a pretty good collection of songs here that i mostly enjoy. there's no standout like "wolf like me" or "i was a lover", but these guys certainly caught my attention with the furious "dancing choose" among others. their 2006 disc "return to cookie mountain" (ugh, that stupid title) is still their peak so far in my opinion. we'll see where they go from here. there's still lots to love.

listen here

8. Azeda Booth - In Flesh Tones

i just heard this album for the first time four or five days before this posting. i think the cover is fairly indicative of the warm pop movements that are found here. this is the kind of album that i can only get in to when i am actively listening, otherwise it tends to blend into the background of whatever else i happen to be doing (driving, list-writing, etc). but when i have taken the time to sit down and hear it, and even though that time has been very little, i have found a gentle familiarity on standout tracks like "i ran", "big fists", and "well" that reminds me of all the reasons i invest time in music. it's the subtle hooks, the changes of pace, the highs and the lows that really pull this album together. they couldn't produce the same effect on their own that they do collectively here, and, to me, that is the art of album-craft.

listen here

7. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

so this is what sigur rós has come to: butts. first (well, second) it was an alien fetus. SHOCKING!! then it was the "two sausages kissing" cover. THEY ARE WEIRD! then it was a nicer little boy stencil. OH THAT'S PRETTY. and now we get butts. well, let's all be grateful that the album cover doesn't have much to do with the sound. no farting here. there is, however, a nice reinvention of the classic sigur rós formula that often included: slow build, high peak, long fall into nothingness, slow build, peak, end of song. instead of 9-minute rises and falls, we get our sigur in bite-size form. and they taste good that way. you'll just have to hear it if you haven't. i'd recommend "gobbledigook" and others.

listen here

6. Beck - Modern Guilt

thank god that beck hasn't given up on us yet. if i were him, i would be so sick of people telling me how past my prime i was, that i'm not creative anymore, etc etc etc. this album should shame them a little bit. it feels like beck is finally comfortable with himself. tracks like "modern guilt," "profanity prayers," "gamma ray," and others showcase beck's unflinching song-craft skillz. i'm pretty content with this album. maybe six is a bit too high, but i'll give him this vote on track record alone.

listen here

5-1 to come sometime soon...

top 5 of 2008

2009-01-08T12:03:00.014-06:00

i actually posted this one after the previous one, but for the sake of going in reverse numerical order this post is now second.

5. Deerhunter - Microcastle

i like liking music. i say that to be kind of contrary to the kind of hipster idea that it's cool to not like certain music just because. it keeps up the image of a discriminatory listener. but really, liking music you hear is so much more satisfying. that brings me to deerhunter and all of last year's megahype that i really didn't get in to. i decided to give this one a go and have been very pleased. this is what i think of when i hear the words "indie rock". it's pop music but with a hitch in its step. whether that hitch is production quality, off-kilter vocals, angularity or ambience, there's always some kind of quirk that either draws you in or alienates you. in deerhunter's case, that hitch is one of a couple things: bradford cox. wait, that's only one. either way, this music is my little shiny pearl in an otherwise underwhelming year for indie rock.

listen here

4. Cut/Copy - In Ghost Colors

i've never been to a rave. wait, yes i have: when i listen to this album! hooo! never ever has my love for the 80s been much more than some kind of nostalgic irony. cut/copy made my butt shake in a way that all the 80s songs i "love" only made my head bob. i could seriously see myself almost wanting to take ecstacy if i were at their show. well, kind of. let's just say that this album makes me *that* out of control and high on life. the best ones: "out there on the ice," "lights and music," "heart on fire" and several others i can't remember now. every once in a while, it's really nice to hear such an immediately pleasing album. i can't say that i loved every album on this list the first time through, but this one will definitely be on heavy rotation into 2009.

listen here

3. The Dodos - Visiter

i already wrote a review of this album for the Forge journal, so i'll (cut)/copy/paste some parts of it here: "I have thought the dynamics of the relationship between melodic and percussive elements to be the opposite of what I hear in the Dodos. Whereas I would normally assume the melodic element to be the dominant, attractive force of the music, I have come to recognize the irresistible rhythmic pull that this album has over me. Besides the guitar and percussion, almost all of the additional instruments (of which there are very few) seem to have less melodic impact than rhythmic. This is the kind of album that opens its listener up to new musical possibilities, and just like all great albums, it clothes its unique pop in a recognizable form." Standout songs are: "Fools," "Jodi," "Ashley" and many others.

listen here

2. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie

deerhoof have the unique position of being the only band that always surprises me. their music is such an odd rock 'n' roll circus that purchasing every new album feels like a crazy adventure at the check-out counter. this album, however, is filled with as much instantly gratifying, chair-kicking rock satisfaction as it is with subtle ear worms. "my purple past" has the best rock hook i heard all year. second and third place are also on this album: "the tears and music of love" and the bombs away coda of "numina o". it's no wonder if i ever felt the primitive need to ...just...rock...out, this was the album i turned to. i gave myself plenty of neck aches from these tracks and probably nearly caused several car accidents all with sincere intentions of keeping up with all the RAWKING OUT deerhoof are doing here. that's not to say that "family of others" isn't the most sublime harmonic soundscape of the year, because it is. deerhoof has always been a rather diverse-sounding band, and i think those endless possibilities are what keep me coming back. i never know what i'm going to hear, but i always know their deviant song-writing and allegiance to RAWKING OUT will rattle my cage and make me wish more bands could make music this free and creative.

listen here

1. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

this album did not come out of nowhere. i've been building a steady admiration over the last couple years for DoE's main band Grizzly Bear. one of the main songwriters for that band is Daniel Rossen, who has written the majority of the music for this album with some help from fellow Grizzly Bear members. i have a hard time saying exactly what it is that makes this album so stunning. Daniel's vocals are haunting and float effortlessly over the phenomenal song writing. this album feels like a walk through an abandoned house: the piano is dusty, the guitar strings are rusted, the harmonies are ghostly, the percussion deepens the echo, the wind chime clangs out a lonely welcome, and yet there is such warmth in that darkness - a measured, slow-plodding elegance. when i found out that the album is dedicated to the recently deceased father of Rossen, everything i had been sensing about the album's tone made sense. the memories are audible and otherworldly present. i have carried the weight of these songs with me more often than any others this year. Rossen's song-craft is the shining centerpiece on songs like "waves of rye," "no one does it like you," and "floating on the lehigh." the tracks here are the most moving i heard all year, powerful in their subtlety and eerie familiarity. needless to say, i can't wait for the new Grizzly Bear later this year. : )

listen here or here

that's the list. i'll begin normal blogging later this week or next.

the list 2006

2007-02-01T17:35:00.000-06:00

finally, a little over a month into the new year i can get this monkey off my back. i listened to a lot of music last year... but these were my favorites. i will soon post my favorite songs of the year that are not included in one of these albums, hopefully with mp3 links for you all. :) music!

10. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Transparent Things”
I can listen to this one walking, studying, sleeping, anytime. It's got a great driving-rock heart for all its electronic showing. The hushed vocals fit in perfectly here, blending in like just another piece of the puzzle. All in all, it's a groove-heavy album you'll find me listening to a lot in the next year.

9. The Flaming Lips – “At War With The Mystics”
The Flaming Lips come back with something filled with less fun-n-games than we may have come to expect, but Wayne and company’s newest has much more to offer than cool bloops/bleeps. Political undertones aside, the opening two tracks (“Yeah yeah yeah song” and “Free Radicals”) are two of the best opening tracks of the year. The zany Flips at their best and most freely produced.

8. The Pipettes – “We Are the Pipettes”
No, the sixties aren't back. These aren't 60s girls, dreaming of the one they love, tripping over themselves, and making us feel sorry for half of the planet. These are women. They aren't taking of it either. "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" was one of my favorites of the year. This trio of brits has some serious bite. The sounds might take you back in time, but the spirit with plant you firmly in the 2000s. Welcome, Pipettes.

7. Califone – “Roots & Crowns”
This album begins and ends with “The Orchids”. The song has truly worked its way into my life over the last few months. Tim Rutili’s rusty vocals bring to his band’s dusty, kitchen-sink folk an aged wisdom, preaching the gospel of restraint in every trailed-off line or downcast dirge. God bless you Califone.

6. Band of Horses – “Everything All The Time”
I thought this album got a little dry half way through. I thought it lost the pop sense that carried its first few songs. I was wrong. Upon listening recently over the last few weeks I’ve warmed up to the second half, especially the closer “St. Augustine”. I realized that to keep this album off my list would mean putting at least 4 or 5 songs in my list of favorite songs not from a top 10 album. So here you are Band of Horses.

5. Islands – “Return to Sea”
Thankyou Mr. Diamonds. : )

4. Mew – “...And the Glass-handed Kites”
This album caught me by surprise so much. I couldn’t believe for a long time that I was actually listening to lyrics like “We are the defenders of jazz ballet.” Seriously. The music was just too good for me to forget it throughout my rotation of 2006 albums. “Special”, “The Zookeeper’s Boy”, and “A Dark Design” are all top-notch songs with great rhythm tricks, timely dissonance, and pop payoff.

3. TV on the Radio – “Return to Cookie Mountain”
I knew this album would get me from the moment I first heard the opening muted horn section. It sounded like the deconstruction of music. The vocals tend to be a little more reserved on this album, letting their song-craft speak louder. It’s art-rock at its finest – reminding me that I haven’t heard it all.

2. Sonic Youth – “Rather Ripped”
Sonic Youth, this is the album by you I’ve been waiting for. I’ve grown into “Daydream Nation” and older era SY, getting accustomed to five-minute jams in between hooks, and then you drop this song-heavy album on me. Thurston Moore is the best 50+ rocker. Evar.

1. Peter, Bjorn & John – “Writer’s Block”
There’s not much I can say about this. It blew me away unlike nothing else has since Broken Social Scene’s “You Forgot It in People”. An entire album of seriously focused pop hooks that somehow came out absolutely loose and natural. “Objects of My Affection” is a great anthem for living! “Let’s Call it Off” is superb in its sour-turn groove! PB&J won me over with “Young Folks”, but had much more melody and off-kilter Bowie-esque pop than I could handle. This is the kind of album I dream of.

home

2006-07-14T14:42:00.000-05:00

where my thoughts escaping, my music playing, my love waiting silently for me.

my cell number is the same. give me a call.

USA USA USA!

2006-07-04T17:20:00.000-05:00

happy independence day, internet blog site that is doubtlessly hosted by a server in my native land.

tonight i had a deliciously ironic fourth of july dinner at McDonald's here in barcelona. i went with a couple friends here from the states that both appreciated and joined in the false sincerity of the night. i ordered the most american thing i could think of: a giant size big mac meal with COCA-COLA. mmmm...tasted good going down and felt even better after we blessed our meal with the most appropriate 'prayer' we could think of: singing the star spangled banner. it really was as funny as it sounds. none of us made it all the way through without laughing. but we bowed heads the whole way and made it through.

for anyone that doesn't understand: i'm not really trying to be completely irreverent here. i really do love my country, and because of that i can "play 4th of july" while i'm in spain with a sense of humor. i would have done the same thing in the states probably. maybe make a cardboard cut-out of osama and shoot roman candles at it. just for fun.

this sense of pseudo-patriotism may still all stem from last 4th of july's service-opening prayer at faith bible, including the quote:
"thank you that we live in the greatest nation the world has ever known."

i can't say for sure. i can say that it's more fun to jump on the band wagon and cheer with the masses than to be all vigilant and somber. and i'm ALL ABOUT FUN!

this post has so many levels of sarcasm. i can't even sift through it.

sweesaland

2006-06-28T10:48:00.000-05:00

i've been in barcelona for 2.5 days now after leaving switzerland on saturday and taking a few trains to get down to spain again. i'm ready for a relaxing last two weeks here in the euro capital of chill. today i went to the beach for a couple hours. read a book, listened to some music, and basically enjoyed not doing much. no site-seeing, no travelling, no hostel booking. just sun 'n' sand.

switzerland was one of the better pure 'places' that i went to. i've been to a lot of cool places, but the people i meet tend to either make it super fun or mediocre. in switzerland i didn't need to meet anybody. i had the mountains to occupy me. and the did for the two full days i spent there. i went hiking the Schynige Platte hike on the southern boarder of the range on my first day and absolutely loved it. here's some photos:

i'm getting psyched for my upcoming hike checking out the view.

interlaken (where i stayed) is down there below the clouds somewhere. you can see the trail leading off in front of me along the ridge.

the peaks in this photo are all part of the hike i was on.

post lunch, and i'm still doing fine as my thumb tells you. being above the clouds is cool.

unfortunately the rest of the hike was below them. which still provided coolness, just not the old kind of coolness.

my camera timer is a gem and the only way i take pictures of myself.

all in all i had a wonderful time in the alps. from the spanish bar and friends i met there in zürich, to watching the swiss win their world cup group and the madness that poured out onto the streets. the country may be more expensive than others in europe, but i'm not complaining. i got my $ worth.

two weeks til i see most of you again!

people and places

2006-06-22T11:13:00.000-05:00

i'm in switzerland now. interlaken, switzerland to be exact. today i did some hiking and had a wonderful time in the alps. they are very different than the rockies and i am really glad i came here. it's been kinda foggy since i got here yesterday afternoon, but just knowing there are giant looming mountains behind me is cool enough - even if i can't always see them.

i left jonas and germany yesterday. it was sad. i'm über glad that i got to meet his friends and family because now i know him better. his friends were really fun and we had a great time playing beach volleyball, watching football, skinny dipping in the public pool at 4 am... huh? jonas and i had our own adventures too. we hitch-hiked 350 km from his home to a central city and back in a couple days. i will surely cherish the time that i spent with him as it will likely be a few years before we can hang out again. the same goes for his friends too. they welcomed me and made me one of them. it was hard to leave but more lies ahead. for those of you that don't know, jonas was a foreign exchange intern with campus life this last year and that's how i know him.

jonas and i are really tough in wine cellars. step off.

this was the first stop on our hitch-hiking journey. just a little outside his town. we waited here for a couple hours before getting a ride out to the highway.

we waited at this gas station for maybe 45 minutes before finding a man that was going exactly where we were. he took us.

we spent night time under an awning of this business. we slept well, just like the hobos do.

here we are trying to get home after jonas visited a potential school that he decided against. it was kind of rainy which was unfortunate for us standing where there is no cover.

here jonas is talking to bernard our rather unfortunate friend that forgot to pay for his gas and ended up spending an hour explaining things to the police before we could get back on the road in his slowest-ever van. jonas was explaining him the gospel in this photo.

success! we toast to a completed trip. unfortunately, drinking germans are not very steady camera holders.

i regret that i didn't take more photos of his friends, but this is one of them: sam. he was funny.

i don't really know how to book-end this post. there is really no way that i will have that experience with jonas again. next time i see him he will likely be in school in a different city, will have less free time, will not have all his friends around, etc. i guess i should just be glad for the experience itself instead of continually looking toward the next one. tonight i'm watching football. the usa dissappointed today. just beat ghana. sad. disheartening. thank you ref. thank you landon. A+

an evening of football

2006-06-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

the world cup started yesterday. and seeing as i'm in germany and the cup is also in germany i see little reason why i should not take advantage of this fact and join in the festivities. yesterday a group of us from the hostel i'm at in berlin went down to the Tiergarten park here in berlin where there were multiple big screens (think 30-foot screens) set up for free viewing to the people of berlin. there was an estimated 200,000 people there in the park. it was cahraazee fun.

your looking at the view at the screen in front of us and those behind at the other screens.

and here we are pre-game and mid-match. we were me and another USA girl, one irish guy, an aussie guy, two mexican girls, and two canadian girls.

self absorbed? maybe. but that's a photo i found on the internet of me at the flaming lips concert last week. i'm here in berlin until the 14th and then i'm heading south to stuttgart where my friend jonas is waiting to hang out with me and watch lots of football. as if i haven't watched enough. three games today. basically here's my days in berlin:
get up at 11 or so.
get some pastry from the bakery down the street.
eat that pastry.
watch the first match at 3.
eat a kebap at any one of the million kebap spots.
watch the match at 6 and take a nap.
watch the match at 9.
hang out and maybe get some food.
go to bed.
repeat.

evan.

2006-06-08T11:15:00.001-05:00

i've tried to call you several times with no avail. rest assured, i will make it work. i just don't know when yet. i hope you and the fam are well.

too much to cover

2006-06-07T08:13:00.001-05:00

the last few days have gone by pretty fast, but i'll try to bring you up to speed. i left belgium two days ago, seems like a lot longer than that. but it's not. my time in berlin has been nice so far. last night i had some great indian cuisine, and today i had a couple bratwursts (which were not-surprisingly amazing). here's some photos of the flaming lips concert and my friends Dan and Jane that i met in Gent.

that's all from belgium. on to germany where i found this crazy mural drawn on the side of a building:

i also went to checkpoint charlie today and the museum there. it was very interesting. there are parts of the old wall scattered around berlin. sometimes you just stumble accross them.

belgium times

2006-06-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

so i've been in belgium since monday and i've particularly enjoyed my time in Gent (Ghent). the town is, well it's an overused travel word, but: enchanting. the sleepy medieval atmosphere and the town lore is deeply intrenched on every street. i love walking down the streets and hanging out in the plazas. today i did almost nothing with a couple friends i've made, but we had a great day. here's some photos of the city:

the last photo there is foreshadowing of the show tonight. in about two hours it starts. so so so so so so excited and i can't wait to see the Flips again. long live the midwest! i'm off to berlin tomorrow. the world cup waits in silent anticipation.

tennis. or in french: tenis

2006-05-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

i saw me some tennis yesterday. i dont have much to say mostly because this french keyboard is difficult to type on and i need to go to sleep so my hosts will as well.

i did, however see parts of these matches: tommy robredo (spanish), maria sharapova (russian AND HOW), tim henman (england`s man), david nalbandian (argentine), carlos moya (spanish). so the spanish flag i bought came in handy as i waved it and basically made everyone ask themselves if i was in fact spanish.

two more days of paris sites and then its off to brussels in a place they call belgium.

au revoir!

mmmmadrid

2006-05-26T04:55:00.000-05:00

i've been in madrid a few times and seen most of the highlights there...or so i thought. i went outside of the city proper yesterday to a place called El Escorial where there's a giant monastery and the royal tombs since the 1600s. El Escorial was very cool, and i enjoyed it. but the site on the mountain to the north was the real deal as far as sites go. el Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen) is a monument for two important things in spain's history. one, it's a monument to the fallen soldiers of the spanish civil war (1936-39). two, it's the final resting place of the late "dictator" francisco franco who died in 1975 and ruled from the end of the civil war until his death.

lets start with the monastery San Lorenzo to be chronological.

these are all royal tombs. the first photo being in the kings and queens room that was a round and very dark room with lots of gold. the second photo contains tombs of family members.

next is the basilica of the monastery which was surprisingly interesting architecturally. whereas most churches will have columns or pilars supporting the weight, this one had only 4 massive pilars that were at least 30 feet thick.

the library of the monastery was close to the coolest part. there were lots of old astrological/astronomical globes and several old globes of the world that were probably made a few decades after exploring the new world.

ok, on to the other place. it probably helps that Valle de los Caídos is certainly not the first basilica that i've seen or else it wouldn't have been so impressive. but the fact that i've seen cathedrals and basilicas and all kinds of religious buildings before helped me see how amazingly unique this basilica is. the monument itself is impressive enough from the outside, i had no idea what lay beneath the exterior.

we opted for the 7k hike up to the monument instead of the more expensive bus that takes you there, so we got some extra views of the monument on the way.

the monument is really cool to look at. it's out in the middle of the mountains northwest of madrid and basically in the middle of nowhere except a few dotted towns around it in the hills. when you walk into the basilica, you are confronted with these awesome-looking guardian angels that seem to ward off irreverence.

the basilica is just a long vaulted tunnel, but much deeper than any basilica i know of. the atmosphere here is not anything less than creepy, scary, or even evil. with decorative rugs hanging on each wall depicting scenes from the apocalypse, and dark robed sculptures with no faces gazing down from the ceiling, the basilica commands attention like none other.

the center piece of the basilica is one lone decoration. jesus hanging from a ragged tree trunk, with one stream of light falling down to illuminate only him. it was pretty spectacular.

this is looking back down the basilica from behind the center piece. franco's tomb lies in the foreground.

that isn't all though. the coolness continued with the tram that took us up to the cross.

this is the back side of the monument that you wouldn't even know existed from the front side.

the cross was so big from up there. everything was so big. the scultures were SO big. i don't know how to describe them.

see what i mean?? that big toe you see is as big as my entire body. these scultures hung over the edge of the cross' base and seemed to be falling on top of me as i walked under them.

holy cow that place was cool.

hey hey hey

2006-05-19T16:49:00.000-05:00

it's coming down to the wire here. two more full days left in sunny and too-hot sevilla. seriously the temperature here has been near 110 for the last four or five days and i'm running low on sweat. i found out today that my friend's grandparents that put me up in paris will be able to do so again when i visit the city next week for the french open. that was great news because it will save me quite a bit of money and because they are nice people and i like nice people.

i ended my guitar classes on thursday and learned my favorite "falseta" so far. that's like a piece of a flamenco song. it's nice when you can play flamenco music, but even better when it sounds so good, like this one i learned. i said goodbye to more people yesterday at the going away party. i gave my final presentation at the archeological museum. tomorrow i think we're going to the davinci code those of us that remain from our core group.

these are some non-themed last week pictures. friends, torsi, the cathedral bell tower.

consider this the end of my sevilla blog. any other blogging will take place on the road. i'll probably post something in about 4 or 5 days from my hostel in madrid where there's wireless. thanks for reading as always.

final countdown

2006-05-13T08:06:00.000-05:00

there are several things i could count down today. let's start with the soonest thing which is leaving sevilla. that countdown has 9 days left on it.

the next countdown would be until the beginning of the french open. that one is 15 days away.

the next one is until the flaming lips concert i'm going to see in belgium. countdown shows 24 days.

next countdown is to the beginning of the world cup. that one's got 27 days left.

then i guess my last countdown would be until going home, cause there's not really any other major dates besides those. 60 days until i fly home.

it's finals week right now, so i'm spending a lot of time in the dorm or at the library studying for the tests/presentations. i really need to take some time out today and get some more hostels reserved in rome, brussels, zurich, and barcelona. this week i thought a lot about my upcoming travels. it's going to be really fun and i stopped worrying about all the problems that could happen and just think about the adventure that i'm going to have. so, that's nice.

that's all i got. here's a few pictures. i went to a flamenco show the other day where my guitar professor ruben was playing:

there's ruben on the left.

how many roads...?

2006-05-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

Lagos, Portugal was my destination this weekend. i went on friday morning with a company called "discover sevilla" that offers excursions for students. the trip/hotel/misc benefits cost me 100 bucks, which was nice for a whole weekend. lagos is notoriously the postcard photo capital of portugal because of its ridiculous beaches and rocky cliffs. the pictures below are not postcards that i set on the ground to take pictures of, but rather whatever i happened to walk by during my days at lagos. roll the clips!

these first two pictures from the edge of our hotel's parking lot. first, a secluded beach that i never did find the route to (unless swimming out around the cliffs). and second, the Playa Doña Ana. cookie cut for postcards.

here's the beach i spent friday and some of saturday at: the Playa Camilo. it is less crowded than the other ones because it took a little bit of walking to get to. i spent my time laying in the sun for a few hours, reading books or trying to not count the abundant topless sunbathers.

this is a little niche i found while hiking around the cliffs. it was really impressive the deeper i climbed, as you can see in photo number dos. there were fishermen going in and out of these rocks. i guess the fish like the views too.

here's a little street in lagos. it's a typical nice little mediterranean town. white houses, stoney streets, and lots of restaurants.

it just occured to me that "aaron and the end of the world" sounds like a good children's book title. well, where i'm standing was literally the end of the world up until about 500 years ago. the southwestern tip of europe. and the last sight columbus saw before he found the greatest nation the world has ever known. the sunset was nice too.

ok, well i've got two more weeks here in sevilla before i hit the road. it's time for paper writing and final studying. which i should be used to at this point. so, wish me luck! see you in a couple months.

toledo and salamanca

2006-04-30T08:23:00.000-05:00

these two are likely going to go down as my two favorite cities in spain. toledo will always be number one for sentimental reasons, but salamanca just blew my socks off last week. the city has a very unique feel to it. vibrant antiquity is all i can come up with to describe it right now. but it's definitely unique and i loved loved loved my time there. it also helped that i was hanging out with my long lost friend olivia. it was good to see her again, and to meet all her cool friends.

this is the view from my hostal terrace. pretty nice. the next one on here is the plaza mayor, which i would say is the best plaza mayor i've seen in spain. much better than madrid's. note the golden sandstone that everything is built with.

this is a cool guy from peru that i hung out with a lot. his name is alejandro, but they all call him "jano". next is the front of the monasterio san esteban. pretty exhaustively decorated. next is the staircase of the universidad pontificia of the to-be-clergymen. the writings on the wall are what they get to do when they graduate. the buildings of this city are covered with them, from all the centuries.

olivia took a picture of me doing nothing. then we went to this really dark church that was very cool (temperature and just coolness).

the decoration in the convento las dueñas was amazing. very neo-gothic with its grotesque figures and designs. i loved the diversity. grotesque carvings are the kind that began to unite human forms with all that is non-human (i.e. vegetation, mythology, and animals).

the salamanca cathedral is a stunner. a magnificent tribute to the gothic form, and as far as i have found, the only one you can climb up. the views from the catwalk were fantastic.

cathedrals really don't get old for me. they make me feel so small. it's a fun feeling.

the last night we went to this small old bar that had chains hanging from the ceiling and a jazz trio playing. they played some surprise beatles covers such as "lady madonna" (sorry jeremy) and "something" (my favorite abbey road song). the atmosphere was fantastic. i talked to a friend of olivia's about tennis for probably an hour.

salamanca was so great. i could have easily spent a semester there if i wanted to. the nightlife was so different from sevilla's. everything is in such a smaller area that we went to 5 bars in about two hours one night. and everything is built out of beautiful sandstone blocks. history rings loud in salamanca. number two in spain.

semana santa

2006-04-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

or "holy week" is spain's easter. a whole week of processions through most of the cities here of depictions of jesus and mary. the "pasos" move very slowly and are proceeded by a series of candle holders, and followed by a band playing traditional songs of the week. i love things like this because they are such wide windows into cultures, so i had a great time this week indulging in the piety and flocks of people (sevilla is by and large reveared as the center of semana santa). most of the processions take place after dark, lasting until 2 or 3 in the morning. my first encounter with semana santa took place in Tarifa on sunday night on the way back from morocco. here's the procession i found:

right before this procession began a man sung in front of the platform before it was lifted up to be carried. it was beautiful.

later on in the same procession.

now try not to be alarmed by the KKK resemblance. semana santa has its roots a few centuries before before the klan had adopted their standard dress (1915).

i did this for a day on monday. it was really nice. tarifa is some kind of world capital when it comes to kite/wind surfing so there's lots of rental shops and people taking part.

these pics are back in sevilla on wednesday and thursday respectively. on thursday i found a really good spot by the cathedral to watch the pasos. it was cool.

i moved on later in the night and snapped these pictures of the cathedral and what was actually the same paso i saw before going by on my way home.

and that's semana santa. it's over and i'm back in school. however, this friday starts the next long weekend as i have next week off school too. i'm taking a trip up north to visit my house family from 2004 in Toledo before going west to see my friend Olivia from France that's studying in Salamanca. exciting stuff!

the dark continent

2006-04-11T17:04:00.000-05:00

dum dum dum... AFRICA. the lion king, charlize theron, and pygmies.

but first... the night in tarifa was filled with beach walking and castle exploring. i know i got my fill.

the tarifa castle was re-traversed and all of the mystery held behind the door was revealed. dum dum dum! i wish i could put music on here, but i can't. here's what the place looks like, to refresh your memories:

so that's all i saw the last time. let me tell you that this time i went alone to the castle. at midnight. so i was crapping my pants. i moved down through the stairwell past the door and i came to this doorway:

beyond this doorway was a room:

you can see a door in that photo. this door opens to a passageway that looks out over the sea:

and that's all there ways down there. just the castle basement/dungeon/lookout/who-knows-what. but i was very satisfied with my ability to explore that place alone. i bought a flashlight for the occasion. later on, after i got out and found the mexican girls i was traveling with, i convinced one of them to come back with me.

this is Jade being all blair-witch in the corner.

the next day it was on to morocco. duh duh duh DUM duh DUM. charge! we left europe in our dust...erm, spray.

here's the first view of tanger, morocco from the docks in the bay.

my favorite moroccan friend Behiya was conveniently on her way home to visit her family and we rode the same ferry over, so she helped us find a nice and fair cab driver that would take us down the coast to the quiet beach town of Asilah. on the way there our driver Ahmid stopped us at this little outlet to give camel riding a try.

that's right. i rode a camel in africa. bam!

after we got to Asilah and found our hostal we headed down to the beach to play some frisbee (i've been dying without it) and do some swimming if it seemed like a good idea. we headed back after sunset.

the Asilah nightlife was kinda cool. we tried to find some wine but to no avail. i did watch some of the valencia v. celta vigo match at a bar with a cool moroccan guy that i met. other than that though, we just hung out in the room. here we are with our friend Erik (from Texas) that we met on the ferry.

the next day we hit up the markets. hot times!

we said goodbye to Erik who was going to venture farther south for a couple days and headed back up to Tanger with Ahmid who came back to Asilah to pick us up. 4 amigos and 1 chauffer.

so Africa was great, a super blood-pumping adventure. monday we came home from tarifa and i had a nice sleep last night without any worries. this week i have no school because of semana santa (holy week) which is a pretty big deal around here. actually, more like the biggest of deals. the world comes to sevilla for semana santa and its saintly processions down the streets. i will be doing lots of homework in my down time this week, and will be spending many nights downtown watching the happenings. i'll report back soon with photos as always. thanks for reading!

morocco, take two

2006-04-07T07:13:00.000-05:00

we're trying morocco again. i will hopefully return on monday with piktures.

sevilla v. zenit

2006-04-02T05:51:00.000-05:00

fabrício's last night here went perfectly. we rolled into the sánchez pizjuan stadium at about eight on thursday and the match was scheduled for nine. so we had an hour to enjoy the stadium filling up, the perfect sevilla night at 60 degrees, and the nice view of the zenit fans fighting the security guards. it got pretty intense for a few minutes. i read in the paper today that 15 russians (zenit is from st. petersburg) were detained and 9 security guards received medical attention - one of which had a broken jaw! yikes.

let's cut to the chase, though: sevilla killed them 4-1. now, it would be important to know that this is the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup, so no match is easy by any stretch. these are some of the best clubs in europe. so that makes it even more impressive.

this is fabrício and i pre-game getting pumped.

this banner dropped down and almost made me cry! "más que mi corazón me late tu escudo" is "your shield beats more for me than my heart" and was a really special thing to see as the team was coming out of the locker room. this is actually the clubs centennial season - it was started in 1905.

here's the team celebrating martí's goal off a penalty kick. it was 2-1 then.

here's some sweet in-game action.

you should download these video files. they may take a little bit (16 MB and 9 MB respectively) but it will be worth it.
here's a link to the celebration after goal number 3: http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=5891164
here's a link to fabrício's post-game video analysis: http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=5672940

so it was a great night. and here's a hilarious story from after the game: we're sitting on a bench and this very sad russian man walks up to us with an inquisitive look on his face, leans down close to us, and says as clearly as he could "Vodka". as if asking which direction he could get some, we explained with spanish that he couldn't understand and pointed the direction to a bar. then he walked off. the only russian i've ever talked to in my life said one word to me - "vodka". it's no longer a stereotype, it's a fact. the end.

lots of stuff

2006-03-30T16:28:00.000-06:00

so i'm kinda behind on posts. so i'm going to do a big ol' picture blog here so you can see what i've been up to. these first pictures are from last weekend. on friday i went to carmona and on saturday i went to mulva (mulva?). lots of old ruins in both places. here you go from carmona (about 30 miles east):

this is my friend from denmark, metta, going down into an old tomb from the 8th century.

this was a ceremony plaza outside a tomb of a king.

this is the alcázar in carmona. it was pretty cool and gave us a good view of the city as you can see.

these next few are from mulva, about 30 miles northeast:

Ok, so there's a view of our destination: 2nd century roman village.

this is my moroccan friend Behiya. i have a really good time with her. she's fun and speaks four languages: french, arabic, english, and spanish.

look how green things were this day!

more adventures

2006-03-28T14:40:00.000-06:00

well that post was sure a winner! one comment (thanks jeremy)! guess most people don't appreciate castles, or nobody reads this.

well, after all that madness we walked around for another while, ending up down where i took the night photos of the cathedral. then we followed the old city wall around the city to end up at the sea.

so that was cool. then we found some more old buildings that were assumedly part of the ancient city wall around the city. from like the 11th century. in this picture you can see brandon standing at the top and me running up the steps cause i set it on the timer.

after that we went walking around down through the city and we came upon a bar that had some cool music playing inside, so we went in and had something to drink. after talking to the bartender we found out that the two arches in the the bar were actually the gates to enter the city in the 900s when the city was much smaller. wow. that only added to our "holy crap things are old and awesome here!" binge.

so that was basically the end of our night. we went home around 2:30 and slept and then got up and didn't go to morocco cause of the cancelled ferries. so i went home. and that was the weekend. i did a lot of stuff this last weekend too, which i will post later.

the night of adventures

2006-03-24T13:35:00.000-06:00

so here's how it started: we got to tarifa and walked to the hostal after a little shopping. there was a couple fútbol fields out back and there were some kids playing there. maybe 7 or 8 of them. they waived for us to join but we declined being the nice temperate people that we are. so we went inside. and after sitting there for a little bit we realized we were idiots to not play with them. so we went down and played with them for probably 30 minutes or so. they made us look REALLY stupid on a couple occasions, but i think we also suprised them a couple other times. it felt good at least to take part in that.

next we headed back up to the room and realized we were hungry. so the girls gave us a list of stuff to get at the grocery store and we headed out. we must have been really into the "let's be in spain" mood (which i'll admit sometimes i lack) and we opted to eat at a local café and bring the food back later. "surf kebab" was the place of choice. how could we resist with such a pretty señorita behind the counter. the food was excellent. reminded me a lot of the tapas from Enebro in Toledo up north. i was pleased. so then we went to the store and frantically grabbed the food as it was closing, headed back, and tried to explain why we weren't hungry.

after an hour or so of some tinto de verano and lord of the rings in spanish, brandon popped the question: "wanna go for a walk?" it was probably a little after 11 then. it was a good idea. we walked for probably 15 minutes through the streets before we happened upon a mysteriously enticing castle on a hill overlooking the straight of gibraltar. the first one is said castle by day and the second is from above via GoogleEarth (you know you can make it bigger by clicking by now, right?):

ok, so we stumbled upon it and were drawn to climb a wall and scale a muddy cliff to get up to it. we climbed up the northwest side where the front door is.

look how LOOMING THIS IS! and it's just all alone on the top of this hill. no monument, no tour guides, nothing. it just sits here day after day.

then brandon found a way around the edge of the castle to the back side...and holy cow.

i should probably set the scene here on the back side a little better. our light sources were the moon and whenever we took flash photos...and the lighthouse light that flashed by us from about 500 yards north on an island. i'll admit, i was scared the WHOLE time, scared of getting caught, or of a bum jumping out of a broken window, or just scared of the unknown that was all around us. it was then that we made the discovery that i will carry with my the rest of my life until i die. this:

if you look at the GoogleEarth image from above the castle, you will see a little dark spot just to the southwest of the castle proper. that dark spot and the picture above is a stairway down into the ground. and what you see in the image above at the bottom of that stairway is an OPEN DOOR. it was swinging in the wind and when i first saw it i almost lost all bodily control. no, we didn't go down there. we had no light, and i couldn't make myself! but i will find out what is behind that door someday. i will and i must go back! at this point it's the greatest mystery of my life. what could be down there? just a locked door at the end of the passage? or an unguarded way inside the castle!? there was plenty of graffiti on the walls inside, those people had to get in somehow. so anyway.... moving on. this is a very haunting image of the castle on the descent from the hill:

i will continue the night of adventure in another post cause this is turning into a larger project than the papers i have to write for homework. as always, your comments are welcome! thanks for reading!

morocco!

2006-03-21T14:22:00.000-06:00

we were so close to morocco this weekend it was silly. however, the lovely ferries from tarifa decided they wanted to sit it out a day. that's right, we didn't make it. the ferries were all canceled on sunday. so that was a bummer. i don't know if i'm going to try to go again either. but we'll see. my companions for the weekend were the blacks: brandon, brittany, and brooke. i enjoyed them quite a bit. i had a great time running around tarifa with brandon on saturday night. i would say that thus far it was my best night in spain. here's us on the way to tarifa from marbella, looking really hardcore....or trying.

unfortunately, it rained most of the trip, but that didn't deter us from doing our fair share of sight seeing. this is the cathedral at night. we later went through it during the day. it's 16th century neo-gothic.

tarifa is a nice little surf town on the southern-most tip of spain (and europe). there's a really long beach on the west side that we only saw from the mountains above because it was too rainy to go anywhere during the day. but we headed out of there at 3:30 on sunday. we had some trouble on the way back in algeciras, where we were going to catch our buses to málaga and sevilla. but we all made it back ok. so that's really good. i'm going to save the amazing night of adventure that brandon and i had for another post. it's too good for right now.

and now i will do some homework. byes.

readers of aaronwk

2006-03-17T17:35:00.000-06:00

dear readers,

we at blogger.com regret to inform you that aaronwk's account has been terminated effective immediately. the blog will be removed in 24 hours.
-staff

not a blogger? it's easy to join!

actually, it's not being terminated, i just haven't posted on it all week. and won't for probably a few more days because i'm off to morocco tomorrow! woo! the dark continent is about to get a little whiter. pasty-whiter. i'll report back asap with photos though! have a good'n.

birthday partay

2006-03-13T07:20:00.000-06:00

it was andrés' birthday on friday. they actually celebrate those in foreign countries too! here's what we did:

let's revisit andrés' perrenial coolness from the cádiz post:

and now i present exhibit B:

the dude is bad. i'm sure james dean is proud of him somewhere.

can't have a birthday party without a little dancing. right? right.

i found this hat and we all revisited our cádiz disguises for a litte bit.

all he's missing here is a fag. then he'd be don juan for sure. school is back in full swing this week. i should have some visitors at the end of the week. a friend and his little sister are coming to visit their other sister who is studying in málaga (100 miles or so southeast of me). so we'll be hosting brandon and brooke black when they come to sevilla on thursday. should be fun. ok, later!

last night

2006-03-10T10:27:00.000-06:00

it was andrés's birthday so we went into the city and had a good time there. there were seven of us. we first met in a plaza down near the cathedral and walked from there for about 20 minutes before we got to this bar where there was a group laying brazilian music. it was a pretty cool place. some of the others didn't like it too much cause they weren't playing dance music, but that didn't really bother me. we only got there for the group's last song, which was pretty enjoyable.

saw this church on the way to the bar. actually, we saw probably 4 or 5 but it got old wanting to take pictures of them all.

that is fabrício doing the chicken dance. no, not THAT chicken dance, the brazilian one.

we saw these guys in one of the plazas we passed through. they're getting ready for semana santa in april - probably the largest religious festival in spain. the streets are filled with these man-powered tables that will carry statues and other sacred objects around.

srvrllr, thr wrrkrnd

2006-03-06T08:49:00.000-06:00

r hrd r prttr grrd wrrkrnd. r drd r lrt rf hrmwrk hr rt thr drms. rnd rn frrdr r wrnt tr thr crtr rnd wrnt tr thrs rrllr rld hrsprtrl frm thr 15th crntrr. rt wrs crrl, hr r srm phrtrs rf rt.

i promise a normal english post later.

this week is AWESOME!

2006-03-02T17:02:00.000-06:00

ok, awesome is not the right word. more like less exciting than the others have been. we had a day off school on tuesday so that was nice. and i have tomorrow (friday) off like usual so i'm going to go run around the city and see a lot of things i haven't seen yet. not sure what exactly, but i'll put up some pictures later. fabrício and cláudia (the brazilians) left for barcelona this weekend until monday so i'm here without a roommate. but, i do have lots of homework to do this weekend. i've got two tests to study for and two papers to write. so i'll keep myself busy, don't worry!

here's what i'll be doing most of the weekend when i'm not reading books or running around the city.

cádiz

2006-02-26T15:54:00.000-06:00

my night in cádiz was almost exactly like the first night i spent in pamplona two years ago at san fermin (running of the bulls). sadly, that night in pamplona (besides being one of the most memorable nights of my life) was one of the worst times i've ever had. thousands upon thousands of drunk people, me not wearing enough clothes, rain, and being outside all night. that was it. now, i will say that i did have much more fun in cádiz than i did sitting on a bench in pamplona for 6 hours. mostly because i got to meet TONS of people, and i got to spend time with my friends from south america. we started drinking around 5 PM. that was a little too early. but, all in all we (5 of us) plowed through 7 bottles of whiskey. i stopped after we finished the 3rd one. BUT, i did have a good time, and i think the people i met and time i spent with my friends will over shadow the poor weather in my memories of cádiz. i took 55 photos in the 24 hours we were there. ok, i'm going to reference the photo of cádiz from the previous post in these photos. all these photos are from the old city which is at the end (or head) of cádiz:

that's me and the pacific. we are on that triangle point at the tip of the old city in this photo.

this is andrés, just about the baddest fairy god mother i know of. these photos in the park are just inland from where the first picture was taken. where you see the green foliage area.

that's my roommate fabrício and reigning tree dead-lift champion of brazil.

this is our group! (l-r) cristian (ecuador), elizabeth (bolivia), cláudia (brazil), paula (ecuador), fabriício (brazil), andrés (ecuador), and me.

this is from the bell tower of the cádiz cathedral. this would be looking out to sea from...imagine the long part of cádiz is the neck. the cathedral is located on the "throat" area of this ambiguously confusing body analogy of an island.

this is the path that leads to that extension off of the island at the bottom of the photo of cádiz. or what i like to call the "alien extender mouth thingy" if we're keeping with the anatomy trend. and cause it reminds me of Alien.

these girls were really cool. they're from málaga, about as far away as sevilla is, but to the east. and i think the one next to me is the prettiest spanish girl i've met so far. dang.

these guys were hilarious. we spent the whole night here on the steps of the cathedral.

we spent most of the night (from 1-6 AM) with those four girls behind elizabeth who are in sevilla now and from mexico and south america. they were really fun.

and this is just a part of the mass that was surrounding the cathedral in the plaza. i took videos of the whole thing which i can show you all when i get back.

we caught our 9 AM bus back to sevilla and crashed like crazy people on our beds. i slept until about 6 tonight and have been doing laundry and homework since then. good weekend. comment!

what's going on

2006-02-24T05:25:00.000-06:00

there hasn't been much this week. just some school time and homework time. i did start guitar lessons yesterday and am excited to learn to use my fingers to play the guitar instead of the pick i'm used to. first lessons are all finger exercises to learn the coordination that is necessary to pluck all the strings accurately. so i'm practicing that right now.

this weekend seven of us are going to cádiz for the carnival. cádiz is down on the southwest coast in this photo, just south of sevilla where i am. so it's only like a 2 hour bus ride at most.

this is cádiz:

it's a city about as old as anything, and was a major commercial port for the Phoenicians back in...oh say, 800 B.C. well, the carnival is legendary. it's considerred the largest festival in europe by most, and costumes for all attendees are mandatory. now, what should i go as...

art!

2006-02-20T15:13:00.000-06:00

remember how i posted about an art exhibit i went to...oh like a week or two ago? well i went back and took some photos. seriously, the guy's stuff was even better than i remembered. the theme was the individual man lost in the mass of globalized humanity, conformity of thought, etc. here's a few samples:

those are just a few...a FEW of the paintings by José Pedro Robles. the exhibit is called "Silencios y Soledades" which, if you apply yourself, i'm sure you can tell what it means. anyway, i got to meet the man cause he was at the exhibit on saturday. he was super nice and i was really glad i got to meet him. i don't know. it's cool to meet people that make good things like that. and i'm sure they appreciate all the people that want to talk to them.

i went to mass on sunday which was really good. i'll probably start going more often especially if more people start coming.

i'm buying things

2006-02-17T16:52:00.000-06:00

so i tend to keep my post titles pretty obvious. this one is no exception. i bought this yesterday:

that's my new guitar! i'm going to be taking flamenco lessons so i will know how to play for all the flamenco clubs back in lincoln. man, it's going to be awesome! but seriously, i am taking lessons and i'm super happy to be playing again cause it's been a month since i've held my beloved larivée, and even though this can't take it's place, it makes a nice mistress while i'm away.

i've been hanging out with José Luís, a friend i met in class. he's super cool. i'm really excited to start meeting all his spanish friends and getting involved in the local life. ...and meet some ladies... can't deny it. ok, that's all for this time! peace.

córdoba, spain (part deux)

2006-02-14T08:16:00.000-06:00

so this is the rest of the córdoba trip. the royal alcázar and it's extremely royal gardens:

below you will see two pictures of the same bell tower with a lot of stuff inbetween. like foutains, giant walls, and other stuff.

and these would be photos of the garden, um, shrubs? tree-shrubs? shrub-cones?

and these next two are of these statues that i really liked. the second one here is one of my favorite pics of the trip so far. the sky is so blue behind them it looks like they're coming to life. it's also my current desktop background. fun fact!

so that was córdoba. today i went and signed up for spanish guitar lessons, which i'm very juiced about. just gotta go buy a guitar now... tonight fabrício and i are hosting a valentine's dinner with the mexican girls next door and bobby. that should be fun. i gotta start cleaning! here's one for the road. this fountain was really pissing me off.

córdoba, spain

2006-02-12T05:53:00.005-06:00

that's where i went yesterday. it's a decent sized town, a little bigger than lincoln. there was a motley cr(üe)(ew) of eight of us going. my roommate Fabrício, the two Ecuadorians, Cláudia, their classmate Paco, and our neighbors Melissa and Jade from Mexico. the first 5 took Paco's car there, while Jade, Melissa, and i rode the bus. we left Sevilla at 9 am and got to Córdoba at 10:30. unfortunately, the others weren't sure when they were going to leave, so we ended up waiting at the bus station until 12 before we left to go find some food and see sites.

i ate some flamenquín. it's this long log of meat that they deep fry. it was really good. then we went to the famed mezquita. it was rather expensive at €8, but as soon as we walked inside we forgot about that:

those four photos are from the mosque section, constructed by islamic kings during the 8th-12th centuries C.E.

and these photos are from the cathedral part of the mezquita that the conquerings christians "christianized" with their art work and holy relics. well, i would've converted. after that we went to córdoba's alcázar which has a really great section of gardens as well. i think i will hold off on those photos for a couple days. let you soak in the mezquita for a little bit. much love.

Sevilla's Alcázar

2006-02-10T17:24:00.000-06:00

that's where i went today when i headed to the city to buy a book for class. it was perfect because the book stores were closed when i got there are four. so i walked up to the alcázar, which is free for students, and went in to check it out. about 1/5 of the area within the walls is the "palace" portion of the alcázar. the other 4/5 is the giant royal garden. it's all right smack dab in the center of sevilla. but there were no cars to be heard. it was as peaceful as if it were an island. first i'll show you some of the inside, which doesn't look much different from other alcázares, but that doesn't mean it's not awesome. sometimes it's hard to remember to be awed when you so many awe-inspiring things that are similar. but here goes the picture overload:

this is a ceiling, obviously.

ok, those are all from the inside. now, let's move out to the garden. (is this mtv cribs?)

i'z gots all kindz of oweenge tweez up heyuhz in da back yawd.

yes, i set the camera down and set it on timer and walked away and then walked back so it would look candid. i admit my pretensions.

this was a hedge maze that was really fun to get lost in.

so there was a ton more that i saw. but it takes a little while to upload pictures so i'm going to leave it at that. tomorrow morning i'm going to córdoba, about 70 miles east of here. it's got one of the greatest buildings of the western world: built in 784, La Mezquita. look it up on google. i'll post pictures by monday. peace!

fútbol!

2006-02-08T09:37:00.000-06:00

so we went to the FC Sevilla game on sunday and it was really fun!

it was Cristian, Andrés, Fabrício and me.

there were lots of crazy fans that were throwing bottles and other objects all over the field after Sevilla ended up losing. all those people with all the flags were chanting and singing the entire game. they had chants for different players and even one for the ref - who wasn't very well like by the end after he handed out 14 cards during the game. conspiracy! but you'll never have to tell European soccer fans to cry foul. they were born crying foul at refferees.

week-ends

2006-02-06T06:23:00.000-06:00

quite an eventful one this time around. we (Fabrício, myself, the ecuadorians, Victor the cuban, Marcello the mexican) went out on friday to the clubs. it was a much better time than the last time we went out. mostly because Kool was a much better club for watching people dance than Azúcar de Cuba. not knowing merengue, samba, salsa, or any other dance, i take my place by the bar and watch. luckily, fabricio is the same way so we just hang out together. Kool has two levels: the lower level is more american music, techno beats, and popular songs mixed from all the decades. but the upper level is the place to see the dance. here's what it looked like:

that's Cristian dancing next to the bar.

and this is the dance floor.

this guy in the middle wearing the hat was amazing. here he is teaching some people a special dance. i could have watched him for hours. he had a very unique mix of sevilla's classic and michael jackson's snap-legged style. loved it.

after Kool closed around 6 am we marched on to another place and had some beers. we crossed a bridge near the CruzCampo building. Cruzcampo is like budweiser in the US. it's your standard beer. here, you can see the group on the bridge with the building behind us.

it's (from left to right) Fabrício, Andrés, Marcello, and Cristian.

we spent about an hour at that bar and then it was about time for the first bus of the morning to pass by. so we walked back to the center of town and we all went home to our residences via the bus. i got to sleep for about 3.5 hours before i got up at 11 to go meet my friend bobby. she and i were going to this art exhibit that is free on saturdays from 11 to 3. turns out...it actually closed at 2 right when we got there, so the guy let us see it for a few minutes. it was SO cool. i can't explain. the guy's colors were incredible. so sharp and true. i was very impressed. i'm going to have to go back and take some photos next weekend for sure. i went to the fútbol match last night with fabrício and the ecuadorians. it was super fun, and i promise i'll blog about it tomorrow. ok!

hope yours was just as exciting!

let's start at the very beginning...

2006-02-03T14:42:00.000-06:00

this is the first entry in my journal. justin millhouse bought this journal for me. i've used it quite a bit. thanks justin.

January 17, 2006 Tuesday 8:26 am Manchester, England

"I can now say that Hollywood casting directors must be very picky about who they cast with British accents. These people are terribly difficult to understand. I felt so dumb asking them to repeat themselves when we speak the same language. And they're the mother country too! So there's my inferiority complex to factor in, too. A guy who checked my boarding pass actually said "Cheers" to me. I can't say I haven't been trying out my own British accent with them, just to see if they say anything. I think it would be hilarious if one of them called me on it. What an awkward social exchange that would be! Maybe there would be an insult duel. USA v. England. There's wireless here but it costs 6 Lira per hour and I don't have that kind of money."

my lack of upper-case use in cyber space in no way predicts that i actually do write in formal and gramatically-correct english although i may not type that way all the time sometimes it's hard to know when you are typing too long of a sentence on the internet but when you have a nice lined moleskine journal it's really easy to tell when you are doing that so you know when too long is too long so you won't find any english errors in my journal.

my newest blog entry

2006-02-01T17:27:00.000-06:00

so the school week is in full flux...actually tomorrow is my last day for the week. i'm still not wrapping my head around not having school on fridays. so this weekend i was thinking about going to morocco with some girls from class, but alas it's too much money. so instead i'll stay here this weekend and go to the football match on sunday night. it will surely be a blast!

i trekked around yesterday to some places of the city i hadn't seen yet. mainly, the guadalquivir river that passes through the west half of sevilla. here are some photos i took:

in this one you can see the tower of the sevilla cathedral in the distance, as well as the "golden tower" on the far right. the rest are taken from the other bank.

so that was just a sculpture i walked by on my way to the bus stop. i was coming home from eating some pastries at a bakery with some girls from class. they're from TCU and are pretty cool. today in my woman and literature class (myself being the only guy in said class) i was asked to describe what the ideal woman consists of. this after we disected how evil men have been, discussing the history of misogyny and abuse of power, all that kind of stuff. and then she turns to me, the only male, and asks me to resume for the class what the ideal woman is. does anyone else think that's a little...um, too leading? i felt like i had to a.) defend the history of men (which i'll admit isn't pretty in this instance), b.) give an answer that didn't some how lump me in with them, c.) still be honest, d.) be true to the topic at hand (misogyny and censorship). so that was a lot. and it was in spanish, so i was working with a smaller vocabulary. it was just uncomfortable.

whatever. it was still a good experience. suprise questions like that are always good to keep me on my toes. so long!

january 30th

2006-01-30T16:42:00.000-06:00

oh man. the weekend was really a complete failure. i tried to do things. i tried i really tried. ok, so it wasn't a failure. it was just a let down for being in spain. i went out with my intercambio partner José on saturday night. he was super nice and helped me learn a lot of new words and frases that will help me not sound like such a formal spanish speaker. but then...he started talking about how he has so much sex all the time with all these girls...and about the american girls that he's known in that way...over and over, almost every other comment was directed toward how many girls, yadda, yadda... i began to wonder what my obligation was:

do i just laugh along with him and pretend like that's fine so as to not seem like an ignorant and offended american? i know the culture is much more open and active with such things. and i don't want to disrespect the culture, that would be a mistake. but how do i tell him that i don't think that's the greatest thing ever without losing that friendship. i don't know.

so that night i went over to bobby's who was planning on partying with some of her spanish friends. we ended up sitting around in her appartment for almost 5 hours until about 2:30 AM when we finally got up and decided to go somewhere. bad thing is it was raining and really cold. probably 40 degrees. all i had was a t-shirt and my jacket. so we set off to find this guy's house, but there were no taxis at all! there are usually dozens of them. so we walked...for about 45 minutes...across sevilla to find this guys place and eventually got there completely drenched just as everyone was heading home. sigh...so we took a cab back to her place and fell asleep on the couches. what a terrible attempt at being social! our inertia was so strong that it kept us on those couches watching "casino" in spanish until 2:30 and then we didn't even get to the party we had planned to go to. oh well, at least that gave me somthing to post on here.

sorry i didn't take any photos. peace.

saturday

2006-01-28T07:46:00.000-06:00

today's been pretty boring so far. no homework to do yet, so i'm just hanging out at the dorm. i'm hanging out with my intercambio partner in a few hours at 5. the university pairs every american student up with a student from spain and then we hang out with them and get integrated into the culture here that way. so josé is coming to pick me up today at 5 and we're gonna go get some coffee or something. fabrício and the rest of my friends here have left for granada because they don't have school on monday or tuesday. so i'm here all alone this weekend. it's kinda nice, but kinda boring too. here's what my dormroom looks like.

i don't know what else to say.

school

2006-01-26T11:33:00.000-06:00

school. it started yesterday here. there's some things i found out about it that i wasn't aware of. we don't have classes on fridays. ok, just in case you missed that: we...don't...have...classes...on...fridays...!! i go to three classes monday/wednesday and two on tuesday/thursday. most of the classes are going to be good. i'm especially excited about my women and literature class, my contemporary spanish lit class, and my andalucían history class. those are the ones in spanish. the others are in english - international marketing, and global economics. i'm not too sure how i feel about those. i really don't like that they're in english. but whatever.

yesterday was fun. i went into the city and hung out with my friend bobby from DC. she's pretty cool. we had some tapas and some wines. then when i got back it was party time on the balcony.

so that was fun. just hanging out. being goofy, saying spanish cuss words cause they don't seem bad to any of us (funny how that works). all in all, they all drank too much and were really loud. some of our dorm neighbors came out on their balcony to tell us to be quieter. we didn't get quieter, we just moved the party inside...and got louder. which probably didn't do anything. it really doesn't feel like i'm in school right now, and it probably won't until i start taking tests and giving presentations. oh well, i'll leave you with this. it's a type of tree i've never seen. i was trying to do my most emo pose ever.

i'll make this easier for you...

2006-01-24T16:37:00.000-06:00

that's the first picture i posted last time...

this is the second one...

this is the third one...

and i'll throw in a fourth because i'm so generous tonight!... it's a picture of the university of Sevilla main building.

happenings...

2006-01-23T13:59:00.000-06:00

well, here's what's been going on lately. i spent friday night out at bars and clubs in the city. it was pretty fun, but i just had arrived that afternoon so i was pretty tired and left everyone at 5 am. that's actually kind of early to quit partying here. the rest stayed out til 8. but i got up at 9:30 on saturday and went with Cláudia (the Brazilian girl down the hall) around the city to see all the sites. well, we didn't quite see all of them. but we saw a few. the cathedral, the alcázar, and the main park area were all really nice.

this is the south side of the cathedral. it's hard to fit any part of it into one picture because it's the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. so... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00459.jpg

this is the alcázar. it's the oldest palace still used as a royal residence in europe (if i remember right). i haven't been inside it, but i will go in soon... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00462.jpg

this was my travelling companion Cláudia. we're at the plaza de españa here in the park... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00430.jpg

so tonight i went grocery shopping with my roommate Fabrício and Cláudia. we sat on the bus in traffic for about an hour on the way home. it was ridiculous. it should have been a 5 minute drive. there was some accident or something, but the streets were filled with cars pointed every which way. i was surprised we got through it in our big bus. ok, so i guess that's all i'm going to write tonight.

aaron

well i made it

2006-01-20T20:23:00.001-06:00

i'm here in my dorm room with my roommate Fabrício from Brazil. he's been very good to me, showing me around the place and stuff. right now we're plugging away at our laptops. the trip here was long and very tiring but i'm glad that i can actually settle down in a place and not have to pack up my bags again the next day to go somewhere else.

paris was really nice. here's some pictures of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/fa7834a5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSCF0004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSCF0011.jpg

the first one is me in front of the notre dame cathedral in paris. the second one is the louvre museum. the third one is some tower (maybe a telephone tower or something), but it looked really cool. so then i proceeded to fly out of paris to madrid where i stayed last night. then i took a train today to sevilla.

i had a little trouble finding the right bus to my university, but a helpful man showed me the way. thank you, man! then there was some trouble with my room and my class schedule, but everything should work itself out on monday. i made friends with the lady that monitors the desk downstairs because i sat with her for about 2 hours while things got sorted out. we talked about all kinds of things. she was really nice and helpful.

anyway, i think that's all for tonight. count on updates as often as i can type them.

everybody!

2006-01-19T11:20:00.000-06:00

i am in madrid tonight at Los Amigos hostel. i stayed at this place in 2004 for a few days but tonight i´m just passing through. Paris was great, are you surprised? i spent one whole day sight seeing. i saw the louvre, the seine, eiffel tower, the notre dame, the arch de triomphe, roland garros, and lots of lovely french girls. seriously, they were everywhere.

marie´s grandparents were very good to me during my stay. i had more food than i could eat. plenty of cheese and wine. too much sometimes... tomorrow i´m taking a train to Sevilla where i will spend the semester. i would appreciate any comments. i don´t know who is reading this otherwise.

bye bye.

First entry 2006

2006-01-12T14:04:00.000-06:00

K, so i leave for Spain monday and i'm not really sure what to think. i'm just going to another part of the world. i'm going a long ways away from all of my friends, but i'm not leaving the world. i'm still in the world. this is to tell myself and all you that it isn't a big deal. i just won't see you for a while.

i'll be back.

goodbyes are sad

2004-07-31T07:48:00.000-05:00

the title of this entry shares its name with the saddest song i know of outside the works of elliot smith. the song is by starflyer 59 and i´m glad i don´t have that disk with me because i would listen to it and be even sadder. now, i don´t really understand this about myself, but i have this tendency to want to become sadder than i already am when i´m upset about something (i.e. friends leaving). strange.

thursday was the farewell party for all of us students. the party was fine, and what followed it adds up to be what i believe to be the best night of my life. yeah, really. there are many factors, not just because we went to my favorite bar or club (we didn´t). but here´s some reasons why:

- it was spent with my newest and best friends from all over the world
- it was two days to the end so we went nuts
- the group that i went with included my two best friends from france
- we danced lights out
- we laughed til our stomachs hurt, all smiles all night

clearly, it was incredible. we went to a bar to get some drinks to start. i had some good conversation with a couple students from slovakia that were really cool. cool people all over, man. i tell ya. after maybe an hour or more at the bar we went to Picaro to take some people with us to our favorite dance club. well, we ended up just staying and dancing there. and let me tell you how glad i was that we did. they played great music, not just the techno dance crap, but really good songs. as i mentioned before, we danced lights out. but the highlight of the night by far (and maybe of the trip) was when "message in a bottle" by the police came on. holy crap.

a) i love that song so much.
b) with all my best friends in spain
c) i love that song so much.

i can´t put it to words. i felt so alive for those 3 minutes. it was perfect. absolutely perfect.

last night we went out to hang out in a bar with less craziness. it was good to be with the french girls for the last two weeks. basically it was just the three of us most of the time. they´re my favorite. they read my journal at the bar and found some incriminating things that i had hoped they wouldn´t be able to read since they can´t speak english, but it was funny. we exchanged several farewell notes during the last week about how much we had enjoyed each other´s company. makes me really happy to know them. happy beyond english, spanish, or french could comunicate.

they left this morning and i sent them off with hugs and kisses and wishes of a future reunion. sigh. i have prayed a lot today that we will meet again. praying is good. i´ll be back on tuesday. i´ve got 3 days here in Madrid to relax and sight see. much love to all the world.

aaron

back in toledo

2004-07-27T12:42:00.000-05:00

my right foot looks like a casualty of war people. the left is fine, but my right really took a beating in barcelona. i´ve got a band-aided blister on my fourth toe, i stubbed my 3rd toe today, a cut on my second toe, and i broke the nail in half on my big toe. now, it´s true that i´m new to this whole sandal wearing deal, but i really find it hard to believe this happens to everyone. my experience must be unique, or i just don´t want to admit that i´m clumsy. one of the two.

the last day in barcelona was really nice. we went to an IMAX that was also a 3-D showing. it was incredible. IMAX is cool enough, but in 3-D it was like drinking a huge Coke after a Super Size fries. which is awesome. maybe my favorite part of eating food. but i digress.

we went our seperate ways after that for some solo time. i went to the F.C. Barcelona fútbol museum. it was very interesting although i wish i´d have paid attention to the team for the last 20 years. then it would have been more meaningful. but it was cool nonetheless. after that i took the metro down toward the sea to go to the beach. it was pretty crowded. lots of topless ladies around and for some reason i didn´t even think twice about it. it didn´t bother me at all. maybe i´m too adjusted here or something. if i was a girl i think i would have gone topless just because: how many chances will you have to do that when no one will care!? c´mon ladies! spain!

after a swim in the mediterranian i layed (lain?) on the beach for a while and then headed to a café along the boardwalk. i had some potatoes and a couple very tasty drinks. man, they were really good. really expensive, but really good. low alcohol content and high flavor content.

i called my mom after that and headed to our bus station where we were to meet to get our luggage out of the storage facility. so we arrived and got it out and headed to the bus stop. our bus was leaving at 10 and it was about 9:15. so we´re good, right? good until we find out at 9:30 that we are at the wrong bus station and need to be across town in half an hour. now that´s a lot of time, but for riding the metro that´s about 12 stops or more. so we went into panic mode and hailed a cab which got us there in plenty of time. yay! i was relieved and a half.

the ride home was OK. it was an overnight bus so you´re supposed to sleep, but as far as i could tell many people couldn´t. at least i couldn´t sleep well. i listened to music most of the way. we got into madrid at 6:30AM and ran our butts off to the bus terminal to get tickets back to toledo as early as possible. we got on the 6:45 bus which actually left on time. we got to toledo around 7:30 and i walked home to shower and eat breakfast before getting to school by 9. quite a night/day.

today after school i took a nap and then went to the pool. i finished reading Telling the Truth again at the pool. i think i´ve read that book about 6 or 7 times now. it´s nice when your favorite book is only 99 pages. you can read it a lot. tonight we´re heading out to party hearty again. you know how we do it in spain. well, i think i´ll keep making my way around the net. see you later.

aaron

barcelona

2004-07-25T15:10:00.000-05:00

i´m on my second night here in barcelona.

the town´s pretty cool. the ramblas one of the main streets of the town and basically the walkway around here. tons of little shops line the strip during the day, and street performers bring their goods at night. from minarret dolls of the beatles playing a show, to gimnastical impossibilities, the ramblas is the place.

i´ve seen quite a lot in my two days here. the sagrada familia, all other guadí related sights, an old castle that overlooks the port section, cathedrals, the aquarium, and the picasso museum. there´s a lot to do and see. my two companions this time are eric and josh. i think they´re both from NU. anyway, it really hasn´t been the fun time i´d expected. when we decided to go together i knew it wasn´t going to be the greatest. they´re both really quiet guys that don´t really talk and thus far haven´t really had opinions on what to see. so i basically decide. sigh. most of my friends are either in madrid or valencia this weekend. but i´m looking forward to a fun last week with them when we return tomorrow night.

let´s see. i´ll be heading back to my hostel soon to take a shower. it´s across the street from the peir section, right on the sea. it´s basically just a few rooms with a bunch of bunks. and way over priced, but i have to deal with it. i won´t have a problem sleeping bad though, the days wear me out a lot.

i knew i would say this near the end anyway, so here goes. i cannot believe it´s already almost over. this has been the fastest month of my life i think. it makes me a little sad. i wish for the world i could just find a job and live here. but with USA obligations that is an impossibility. another thing is the friends i have made out here, particularly the two girls from france. we´ve been together quite a bit and it´s going to be hard to see them go knowing that i will not likely see them again, or if i do not for a long while. maybe if i save up enough money i can come back in a couple summers. gosh i hope so, but that seems so far off right now.

see you all in a week or so.

aaron

feliz cumpleaños

2004-07-23T04:30:00.000-05:00

yes, last night was derrick´s birthday party here in spain. it was number 21 for him and let me tell you, it was a bang and a half.

alright, not quite a bang. but lemme hit you with some story time. we met at the plaza de zocodover (the main square in toledo) at 10:45 to prep for a crazy night with some beers. i had a coke because you all know i like to kick things off right! right? right. so i drank some coke and the group had beers. we were there until about 11:20 or so. derrick´s beer count at this point: 2. so we headed to another bar called boveda. cheap wine, cheap food. i had a couple tinto de veranos. it´s definitely my favorite drink so far. it´s tinto mixed with fanta limon or kas limon. very tasty. everyone else was taking shots of absinth at the bar. that stuff is illegal in the USA for a reason, people. it was ridiculous. derrick´s beer cout: 3. absinth shot count: 4. now, i´m not an expert by any means, but that is a TON of alcohol. seriously.

we went back across town to a dance club coyote. i danced some and then hung out around the exit from like 1:30-2:15 helping a couple drunk girls from our group get their heads back on. then at 2:45 derrick came stumbling toward the exit. he went out and i followed a couple minutes later. i saw him drunkenly amble up the road towards who knows where. so i followed him and we walked up the hill where he had some throw up time. i´ve never really been around drunk people before. at least not this drunk. so he layed there on the ground for a few minutes and then we walked back down to the club and i got him some water and napkins to wash his face off. he was so out of it. saying all kinds of random things. kinda sad.

he got home alright though. crazy night. 3 throw ups. 4 absinth shots, and probably 5 or 6 beers. happy birthday indeed.

aaron

update

2004-07-21T12:52:00.000-05:00

school´s been alright lately. i mean alright in a good way.

yesterday we played a little charades. very funny. today we read articles about domestic violence and gave presentations in class. also class has just been generally more fun. our class is finally gelling together. too bad we only have about a week left.

i´ve been keeping myself pretty busy lately. been seeing museums, convents, synagogues, and the swimming pool here in toledo. there´s so much to see i´m sure i won´t finish it all in a week. tonight we´re going out to eat with a professor. should be a good time.

this weekend i´m going to barcelona. i can´t wait, guys. i booked a hostel today about 3 minutes from the ramblas. hopefully i´ll get my party on there in barce. i´m really excited to see all these monuments that i´ve been reading about for so long. like coming to toledo for the first time, it was like all the pictures and all the things i´d read about were right there now instead of in a book or webpage.

i´ve been keeping up with journalling too. just about every night i write about the day´s happenings and who did what with who and how i liked it and yadda yadda yadda. i haven´t seen seinfeld forever!

later.

the weekend update, with me

2004-07-19T08:56:00.000-05:00

hello world.

this weekend i found myself in segovia and felt too much like a tourist for my liking. the roman aqueduct still stand there. it was definitely still standing. very high and very long. we toured around the thing and up some stairs to get a view near the top of it. quite rad.

we moved on through the city to a church near the town square. it was basically another church. it´s kinda to the point where if you´ve seen one, you´ve seen most. they´re smaller than cathedrals but generally are pretty ornate, just not much variety. from there we moved on to the town square where the cathedral is. it was quite a sight. so many columns rising from it. very cool. after that was the highlight of the day: segovia´s alcázar. look it up on the internet. it rocks. wait.....http://filebox.vt.edu/users/brbasset/images/Alcazar%20at%20Segovia.jpg

if it looks familiar, that´s because it is. walt disney found his inspiration for FantasyLand from this structure. the inside isn´t half bad either. during the tour we ended up on the (if you please) back porch of the structure: http://www.puente-e.com/ciu-es/Segovia/alcazar.jpg

we ate lunch at a local restaurant. it was decent. nice steaks, ok fries, good cocacola. i had no idea that cocacola is like liquid gold over here. it seriously costs 2.50€ (about $3) for an 8 ounce bottle. ridiculous. obviously i haven´t had much coke over here, unless it´s free like it was on saturday. anyways, we got back to toledo around 9 and the french ladies and i decided to go out and party. at 11 i met them at there place and we started the night off with some sangría at a local street cafe. talking about france and USA relations. sheesh, the UN should have been there. we had it all figured out. iraq, bush, everything.

later we followed some local boys to a bar where i had some bailey´s and was accused of being drunk because someone bumped into me and i almost fell over. observers missed the bumping part and only saw the falling part. i had only had 2 drinks! sheesh. no love. well, we walked a long way into new toledo after that where a kicking outdoor party was going on. plenty of music and people dancing. so we hit the floor. i can´t tell you what a trip it is to boogie down with ¨hey yeah¨in spain. when that song came on, i just started looking around and thinking about how i was in freaking europe. it was great. we got home around 4 and had nice sleepy time until 12 on sunday. sunday i saw some local sights, a couple museums, a synagogue, and the cathedral for mass last night.

class is over today. i need to buy another phone card but all the stores close around 3 here so i missed the time. stupid. tonight we have spanish theater night where all who wish gather to watch a movie. should be pretty fun.

well, see you later.

what´s new

2004-07-16T09:33:00.000-05:00

well. today is another day here in spain. classes are done, lunch is eaten, i´m getting ready for a nap. i did some homework last night and went out to meet some friends that decided to change the meeting spot without letting me know. it´s hard when they all live in the dorms and can do that. but since i´m in a family i just go on what we decide at school. oh well, i went to bed early and had some time to journal.

yesterday i took a walk around 7:30 pm. i ended up at the iglesia de santiago near the puerta de bisagra. it happened to be thursday evening mass, so i went in and sat in the last pew. an old lady scooted in next to me a couple minutes later. they were praying several prayers that all ended with the congregation repeating "ora por nosotros" or "pray for us." so it´s obvious we´re asking that to mary. but anyway, i was very surprised that some of the things prayed for where things about the war in iraq, the poor of the streets, those dying without knowing God. throughout the service there was reference after reference to the Son of God and that he is the only way to heaven. that he has pardoned and forgiven us and washed us with his blood. he called us his christian brothers on more than one occasion.

with the smell of insense in the air, the nave rising far above me, and my knees aching from the wooden kneeling bar in front of me, i couldn´t help but understand how close God was to this place. it just felt personal and holy. i really felt closer to God than i have in a long time in that cathedral. i mean, there were images of the cross and christ crucified all over the place. i realized they are not idols or anything of the sort. they helped me focus. a lot. i loved having that figure there on the wall. it was an unforgettable experience and i will definitely return next thursday as well.

things like this are so much bigger than me or than i could ever express or understand. something about the being in europe and the spanish. it was just awesome.

the end.

Photo!

2004-07-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

hey, sorry i got my digital camera to work after some more messing around.
so i give you this picture.
you´ll have to understand that my camera is a 1/3 pixel model, so the photo is very hard to see. especially since i was zoomed in 10x. but anyway:
this is a picture of the mountains around toledo.
enjoy!

it´s thursday and i´m in love

2004-07-15T08:41:00.000-05:00

mmm, not in love so much...but i could be.

the comments are much appreciated. i´m going to have to hold off my final judgement for later, but "armenonymous" is quite a conspicuous name to be posting. now, maybe this anonymous person accidentally hit a couple extra keys. i´ll give them the benefit of the doubt. or maybe they´re typing with boxing gloves on their hands. who knows.

i´ll take a quite life, a handshake, some carbon monoxide with no alarms and no surprises. please.

today school was sort of OK. pretty average. but i just noticed my hands still smell like the peach i ate at lunch. that´s good! my first professor, jaime, is a little difficult to understand, but i´m working on it. we did some ser v. estar review for what reason i´m not sure. it´s just the grammar section i suppose. there´s only so much they can go over. the second half, maria capdevilla had us discuss immigration in our countries. the class had received a paper on monday to read and be ready to discuss, but i didn´t get it until today. she assigned me to the "against immigration" side even though i think i´m in favor. so accordingly, i didn´t say a lot in class today and she wondered what was going on.

i really like the diversity of my class. there are students from: france, bulgaria, hungary, germany, letonia, russia, the united states, slovakia, and slovenia. i think that´s it. we get along like peas. and carrots i suppose. peas in a pod?

we´re going to the bars in new toledo tonight. apparently they´re the best around or something. should be pretty fun. i´ll see what i can do about the photos, evan. i forgot my USB cord today, but maybe tomorrow. bye bye.

aaron

so much updatings!

2004-07-14T08:32:00.000-05:00

i´m in a computer lab. there happens to be a USB port on this computer. that´s good news for me posting some photos. we´ll see what i can do for that. maybe in a couple days i´ll post a photo or two. seriously though, they will just be teasers.

some notes... roommates: a CD i ordered should be arriving in a week. don´t let anything happen to it. also, i´m sure i received a magazine and a CD in the mail after i left. i hope they´re up in my room and not on the living room floor somewhere. also, how´s the house looking right now? clean? how has the partying been?

what else.

today in class we discussed the complexities of having children. what is good and bad about our society´s idea of raising kids. this kind of thing. i ate some beef stew, salad, and an apple with my family and they went out to get the grandkids.

jeremy: remember alejandro? he´s over here a lot. we play FIFA 2004 and he kicks my butt. he has a little brother now, Daniel.

the spanish chics are the best ever. gosh. everywhere i look there´s another gorgeous one. it´s insanity. insane. i hope i meet one and get married. seriously. one of our professors, juan, is teaching us all some spanish pickup lines that are pretty clever and funny. we´re also learning how to translate all the curse words into spanish. "que te jodan" came in handy the other day, jeremy. in pamplona, some stupid drunk ran off with my friends hat. i yelled it at him. i felt cool. am i?

welp. i got other places to go and people to see and my contacts are burning a little bit. i should go home and take them out. later.

please comment.

this one´s for evan.

2004-07-13T13:48:00.000-05:00

so i forgot to mention what i did before pamplona.

we were in madrid friday night before our train left at 7 on saturday morning. we found a hostal there to stay at and the four of us (nate, laura, carla, and myself) found our room very comfortable.

that night we went to the reina sofia to see the picasso and salvador dalí exibits. i can say for certain that dalí my favorite painter after seeing his exhibit. so much color and intricacy. sometimes it was hard to believe they were paintings. anyway, the guernica by picasso was the star of the show of course. i had been wanting to see that ever since i knew i was coming to spain. it was so big. bigger than anything. way bigger than i thought. it was incredible. he painted it in a month for the world fair in the 30s. ridiculous.

later that night nate and i walked around madrid through the plaza de cibeles and the puenta de alcantra (i think it´s called). look them up on the internet for pictures. they´re awesome. what´s more, we walked throught the parque del buen retiro to see the amazing palacio de velasquez. it was so cool as the sun went down. again, look on the internet for photos. i can´t wait to come back to see the crystal palace. sweetness in madrid. anyways, that´s what we did.

today in class (which lasts from 8-1:30 with a 30 minute break at 11:30) we studied subjunctive, a tense in spanish. it was mostly review, but good review. the next section was taught by mariló. i still have to ask her if she remembers you, jeremy. i will tomorrow. we talked about stereotypes that we had for spanish people before we came here. mine was that they knew how to be suave with the ladies. others included that they didn´t like to work, that they were very respectful, that they didn´t take no for an answer if they´re pursuing a woman. mostly they are inaccurate. it was a good activity.

well, i need to return home for dinner. paco and pilar are expecting me soon. tonight i´ll hit the bars with my friends that drink way too much. but hey, they need somebody sober or else they´d get lost every night on the way home. adios!

aaron

p.s. there is another new entry below if you haven´t read this site for a couple days.

pamplona

2004-07-12T08:01:00.000-05:00

hello to everyone. i just returned from the running of the bulls, please read about it.

we had planned on sleeping in the park from the beginning. there is no way we would find a room in the city during the biggest party in the country. but it was so much colder than we thought it would be outside. so we really didn´t sleep at all the first night. we took the train there and arrived at noon. the next group was coming in at 5 so we sat around a cafe and hung out until they got there.

when they came we went down to the city. we spent some time at the cafe iruna, made famous because ernest hemmingway spent most of his time in pamplona there when he was writing his novel "the sun also rises." thanks jeremy. so we went to get tickets for the bullfights the next day and stood in line next to a big group of drunks from spain and france for 3 hours. it was quite an experience. i caught a pickpocket red handed and shooed her away. we got our tickets and night was about to set in.

our spot for the night was in the plaza. we hung out on a bench in the town´s main square. i watched drunk people amble by for 4 or 5 hours. there was absolutely no stop to the amount of people in this city. they stay up all night getting drunk, and then run with the bulls at 8 in the morning, then go to bed.

later then we sat in the pizza hut that was open still until about 5 am. there were about 10 other americans in there that were pretty cool. so we talked to them until they kicked us out. the next day was the encierro. we had tickets to watch it from the bull ring instead of along side the path, so nate and i got up the stairs fast to get a spot on the balcony overlooking the outside entrance to the ring where everyone would run.

it was so cool. there were thousands of people that were kind of walking when the gun went off. then the pace picked up a little more. it only takes about two and a half minutes total. pretty soon there were people just kinda jogging and laughing and looking around (still drunk), but when they turned around they saw everyone behind them sprinting like crazy and started running too, it was an interesting chain reaction of fear passing through the people. when the crown started to thin out, the bulls came. the bulls came, about 12 of them. i snapped pictures as they went under me. then we went into the ring where all the runners just run around in the ring with the bulls. they let one out at a time. this is where the action is. because the people are still stupid and drunk. they put rubber tips on the horns so you can´t get gored at this point, but plenty of people got run over and roughed up. a brave few actually grabbed the horns either from the front or behind the head and got cheers from the crowd. it was so fun to watch stupid drunk people get tossed like rags and then stagger over to the wall.

that night was the bull fights, so we slept most of the day in the park because it was finally sunny. the bullfights were very cool. a great experience. i have plenty of photos. the only noteworthy thing is that one of the bulls broke his leg when he was running, he must have come down awkward, but anyway, they just killed him. i wonder if that happens often. that was the only thing that really got to me during the fight. it was pretty awful to watch that part.

we got into toledo about an hour and a half ago 1:30pm and i just finished lunch. i´m about to head home and take a nap since i haven´t slept 10 hours in 3 days. take care. adios!

aaron

2004-07-07T13:39:00.000-05:00

good you got everything taken care of. sorry i forgot about that.

spain is going well. classes are off and running. this saturday i go to san fermin for the encierro. that´s what they call it in spain. if you want to know what that is, search on google.com

the food here is interesting. we´ve been eating a lot of pasta at lunch. some meat as well. i´ve been taking lots of photos, so i think i´ll have plenty of explaining to do when i get back. i went to the monestary by my house today, called san juan de los reyes. it´s incredible. the nave is amazing with its vaulted ceilings and towering sculptures that run all the way up both sides and at the altar.

i´ve been hanging out with friends at night at different places around town. the wine here is alright. last night i had some tinto, which i didn´t know was the strongest wine. it was hard to get down, but i made it. pretty much everyone else i go out with drinks A LOT. they´re good people though. well, i better get home for supper. it´s about 8.30 or so here. i can´t find the colon key on this keyboard. talk to you later. tell grandma hi. i´ll try to call down there if i can get a phone card tomorrow.

aaron

españa!

2004-07-05T06:50:00.000-05:00

hello everyone and more.

i am safely and surely in spain right now. sitting at an internet cafe in toledo. my house is just down the street and just outside is the gorgeous monestario san juan de los reyes. it towers about the houses around here.

i just finished my first day at school where i took an oral and written exam. it went well, thanks for asking. um...tonight is the welcome party for all of us students. i´ve met some pretty cool people so far. they´re all bar-hoppers, so we´ll see how drunk they can actually get on spanish wine.

i hope my roommates had fun in colorado. i forgot to give you a rent check, bryan. i will ask my dad to send you the money.

other than that, my time is almost up at this computer, i need to get going. god bless you all. see you in august.

aaron

first entry

2004-07-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

i hope this works right.

this is my site on which i will post updates of my excursion on spain as often as possible. hopefully every two or three days. enjoy the states!